THE LABOR GOVERNMENTS RECORD TO DATE
Laidler, Harry W.
THE LABOR GOVERNMENTS REdORDrTO DAH Accomplishments and Program of the Cabinet Headed by J. Ramsay MacDonald By Barry w. laidler t MUST confans to a tat her straafe feclmf in foiof to London...
...Whether we like it or not we are dues-paying members in the party machine and if we fall behind in our dues we wUl certainly be notified of our delinauencv...
...Now what all this means is that we create places for politicians and we tax ourselves to pay them not for any useful public service they render but to pay therh as active workers for their party organizations...
...There Is nothing wrong with Mas ft* ture...
...British cities have done a considerable amount since the war to house their working class population Glasgow has built 30.000 houses...
...In the perty...
...The prtsent proposal is for the appointment of a Selling Commission for the British coal industry, with power to decide th...
...But direct n2tl5n-.lisatioa seems out of th...
...It would like other nations to withdraw their troops at the same time British troops leave...
...He can make then* safe for workers, renters and hocas M* ers...
...The bin win be operative in 1931...
...rrlilch may be produced in the \arious mines, to make contracts for its sale and to suggest various schemes for more economical operation...
...We also have our own Rothstein case in William, L. D'Olier who was found murdered and his death has been hushed up...
...As the Socialist candidate for President of the Boro of Queen* I am representing the new political ideal that Is unalterably opposed to the politics of the De Bragaa and Connolly regimes...
...They regard politics as an end in itself and this view is, unfortunately, shared by many voters although they pay a heavy price for it...
...It has substituted for little dictators appointed by Chamberlin as Guardians of the Poor, officers nominated by the local communities and responsive to them...
...He represents a party that baa all but smashed the easy chair twoparty politics of England...
...Thomas is inclined to make decisions first and to tell his colleagues afterwards what those decisions are...
...I would cooperate with the proper authorities of the greater city to scientific planning for better and more enduring bousing, for s system of education that will snake thinkers of boys and girls Instead of mechanical dolls, and ao administer affairs that public administration am becmiir a social power serving the masses rather than serving easy chair poMMral brokers and their allies...
...Public office is public power in the hands of men whose use of that power affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of human beings...
...From these talks, formal and informal, I received a series of impressions, and these I wish briefly to put down...
...But in addition to carrying the main burden of the cost of administration there is the undercover looting that goes on and which is only discovered when something like the sewer mess to revealed...
...So the politics of capitalism also contributes dishonor, disgrace, prison sentences, death, huge graft, and through increased assessments the voters have to pay for the awful mess...
...Labor and the Nation ". the party announced its belief "in the ris-it cf the Indian people to selfgovernment and self-determination", and pledged itself to cooperate with India in establishing that country "at the earliest possible moment, and by her consent, as an equal partner with the other mombers of the British Commonwealth of Nations...
...Snowden to find money with widen to subsidise housing and the willingness of tbe local authorities to cooperate with him...
...Some of these dwellings are big apartment nouses In the center of the city...
...The improvement in the condition of the miners of Great Britain is cne of the first needs in British industry...
...It has passed a Colonial Development Bui, with provision for tbe protection of native later through fair wages, with specific provision against the employment of forced child later...
...Critics of Thomas also maintain that, despite his intense activity, his abihty to negotiate, he has not the capacity to consider a question in all of its implications and to drive forward on a well-considered plan with any degree of consistency...
...Too conservative for some Tories, be was certainly not the man for Labor...
...Bis plans wfll be hmitad by three factors: the non-Later members of Parliament, tbe ability of Mr...
...He looks forward to owning his own home...
...I asked that question of government officials—of Mr...
...They are coming to see that one of the most costly luxuries they have is the pontics which they have supported...
...It to drawn true to Bfe aad I * made vivid in the experience of fla> sands of voters...
...Arthur Oreenwood, Oreenwood is one of tbe meat solid of the BocaUafta in tbe cabinet...
...question for the next few years...
...must be accompanied, the Labor government -jrill insist, by an inorea.se ;n wages and a diminution of hours...
...The voters are the stock in which the chiefs gamble...
...Oreenwood, Mr...
...I cannot afford the luxury of the old and dirty politics that has atoseraoad the Bora...
...To the extent that we...
...A former borough president is under sentence to prison because of a crooked transaction involving $12,000,000 on one item of concrete sewer pipe alone...
...As a means, among other things, to give work to the unemployed, the government has approved new public works, including the construction of the bridge across the Thames' at Charing Cross and the rebuilding of Waterloo bridge...
...There had been frequent debates in the former cabinet as to whether or when be should be fired...
...of the officials of the Labor party—win Henderson and James Middle ton: of the free-lance intellectuals —Barnard Shaw...
...Housing plans are In the bands o# the Minister of Health...
...The results obtained from such pontics in the past few years in Queens are only too sadly evident...
...It to under this huge burden that St humble Queens voter staggers tad at load becomes heavier each year...
...The king of the sewer regime drank himself to death and one suspect was found dead of alcoholism in a Harlem gutter...
...Pethick-Lawrence...
...BraUsford and others have worked out elaborate plans here...
...Same claim that tat Oat mission report is bound to he eMaena tive...
...The acid test of Labor's accomplishments", declared a prominent political scientist to me...
...The Minister of Health will also push forward as rapidly as funds will permit plans for raising the standard of hospital service, for public parks, for public abbatoirs...
...land values tax...
...He can rise and hurl tea «ff chair brokers into oblivion...
...The plans presented by the cabinet as a result of the summer of program making will show the extent to which the party means to tackle pressing problems...
...A total of $47,000 annually is paid to maintain this staff...
...the strengthening of the system cf public education—S:r Charles Trevelycn is competently in charge of the Eduoatlcnai Ministry: and the efficient development of agriculture...
...Webb, Mr...
...and for other institutions and services connected with public health...
...Unfortunately the three men do not constitute a "team...
...It has already cost us a heavy price...
...If I desired a private talk with the democratic and hospitable secretary of the Labor party, Arthur Henderson, i must arrange an Interview days ahead with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, unless I could see him at the new Labor headquarters in Transport House where be often spent a moment before his scheduled arrival at the Foreign Office...
...You can amy that British Labor- is willing to go the limit in its march toward disarmament," declared a member of the Executive of the Labor sftrty...
...The distance it goes will depend an the distance the United States is willing to go...
...of the* eucces5ful candidates sponsored by the Independent Labor party, is.the Cccretary of State for India...
...egypt, tbe greatest step forward ^ The Labor government baa begun conversations with the Russian Soviet government regarding the exchange of ambassadors between London and Moscow...
...This Commission bat an bitterly dor.cuneod because it eeatahj no Indian...
...After years of this plundering the light is suddenly turned on and we have a sewer scandal...
...Every minister is at present hounding Philip Encwdcn...
...Easy Chair Brigade But there is another phase of this sort of politics which it is important for us to remember...
...the easy chair party brokers, probably double the number of officials required pay for these nasty affairs...
...He can wipe oat fat and the grafters...
...in the ordinary sense of that term...
...Tbe small home owners and renters must also are loaded with increasing charges, thus malting the struggle to obtain a home more difficult each returning year...
...Lord Lloyd had been a bone of contention ever during the Tory regime...
...We not only pay salaries to useless and workless party workers out of borough funds...
...What follows is unimportant...
...in* brawny man to a giant in povet tat he has not yet become aware of at power...
...It becomes more intense after election because we believe that pontics is a means to an end...
...It has likewise brought about more humane administration of the state insurance schemes...
...It is all legal but it is also stupid as well as costly for the mass of voters...
...Be as refuse to sanction payment of aafcjft to party leaders for party service efts' the Boro founds...
...You as tbe brawny 'giant have taw power to change it...
...The masses of voters in Queens are now facing this period of reckoning...
...Snov«den Hc!:!s the pursestring 3 Of course many of these reforms are dependent for their operation on the state of the treasury...
...If I wanted to sea Ramaay MacDonald, i found i must pass the gauntlet of guards and secretaries in the Prime Minister's mansion at 10 Downey Street...
...But on my visit in August, 1129, all that was changed...
...He is also the leader of the British Labor Party...
...Some are attractive garden settlements in the outskirts, one to three families in a house, the apartments of from three to Ave room...
...The Tories had no comeback...
...Their only purpose is to provide more snaps for party workers to enjoy...
...The press account declared that many friends of the defeated man were happy that he was to be rewarded by this appointment and I have no doubt that this is true...
...The government announced its intention to ratify the Washington Convention for the eight hour day...
...2 With disarmament goes the pro* nouncement of the Labor government that it stands ready to sign the Optional Clause embodied in the statute of tbe Permanent Court of International Justice and thereby commit the country to a determined policy of arbitration in International disputes...
...The attacks gave Henderson a supreme opportunity...
...They are just learning that they are paying dues to the easy chair holders for having aided in swindling them...
...A few weeks ago it was reported that one of the Democratic candidates defeated in the Queens primary would probably receive an appointment that would carry with it a handsome salary...
...First and foremost wUl be measures calculated to lessen unemployment That is the issue which Labor emphasized as the most vital problem in the last campaign...
...It declared that it would restore the subsidy to houses, a subsidy that had been cut down by Austin Chamber lin, with the result that the building of houses decreased from about 200,000 to 100.000 a year...
...If I were to draw a picture of this sort of pontics it wculd show a brawny man of vast strength representing the workers, renters and modest home owners of the boro...
...Because so many voters regard their franchise so cheaply it is not surprising that this pontics becomes sewer pontics and that we have to pay for it later...
...A Socialist is never able to reconcile himself to this vfew of politics and I have never been able to ask for a personal vote on the ground that my friends should give me great social power as a private snap...
...I regard politics not as an end in itself but as a means to an end...
...If we vulgarize the franchise we need not be surprised if those who receive the snaps become vulgarians and pay us in kind...
...Shortly after assuming office, Henderson sent a letter to Lord, Lloyd which the Egyptian Commission could not mistake...
...Uncle Arthur", as Henderson is affectionately called, followed up his vantage by the announcement of the proposed treaty with the Egyptian Parliament, a proposal that Oreat Britain withdraw its troops from Egypt, except as a protection to the Suez Canal: that Egypt and Oreat Britain exchange ambassadors, that Bgypt apply, with Oreat Britain's backing, as a member in the League of nations and that the sovereignty of Egypt be practically restored...
...Political Parasitism Thus it turns out that if the voters regard politics as an end in itself public officials win also so regard it...
...Because of habit, inherited political views, or general conservative outlook he has voted for candidates of the old twoparty brigade of easy chair holders...
...beine, rented at from $12 to $20 a month...
...It to useless to charge the politicians with responsibility Jen all this...
...Let us do so at the Norember ejection FosnrstT roatijM Prof...
...To the extent of the power of tbe office I would discharge every useless functionary and nail up his office...
...George Lansbury and Sir Oswald Mosiey to taciile this problem...
...Chancellor of the Ettehequer...
...Because of this situation due to easy chair politlcs the struggle of the home owners and renters is one of the most pathetic aspects of Queens Borough life...
...Louise Btoeaatsr of Banter College will give a lecture on "Great Music Inspired by German Poetry" at the University Settlement Poetry Forum, 1S4 Eldridge street, N. Y. c Saturday...
...But there is a lone waiting list of people clamoring for accommodation...
...party S* stay :ti offiec as lcn- a? pceafh'e Ot vie-- to rtmedyinrj the worst evicts'fx present situation both at hm» ei abroad and to lay th...
...One th.ng is certain that Fhilip fnowden v-Ui do his best to incorporate in his taxation system th...
...wul come when the House of Parliament meets in tbe Fall...
...It practicaUy concluded the session and labor's representatives went out with heads back and colors flying...
...THE LABOR GOVERNMENTS REdORDrTO DAH Accomplishments and Program of the Cabinet Headed by J. Ramsay MacDonald By Barry w. laidler t MUST confans to a tat her straafe feclmf in foiof to London this x summer...
...The initiative must be taken by each city...
...It assumes that the franchise has no more important value than to distribute jobs among active party leaders...
...j The Labor party after taking office * immediately got busy with conversations With Washington...
...He has left the more crowded boroughs and moved into Queens...
...In this way politics also becomes a business which pays the professionals just as investment in the stock of a corporation does...
...Astride that structure are...
...He arranges to pay for one on the installment plan and this may require from ten to twenty years...
...said an observer of parliamentary debates...
...amount of coa...
...represents only a handful of those who are enriched by it and it despoils the great majority of the voters...
...To tbe utmost of my power I would work to relieve the home owners and renters of the unfair and excess assessments they pay and seek to make the bag interests pay a more equitable rate...
...School-leaving Age Raised In domestic affairs, things are stiU in the program stage...
...It has adopted the principle that no cut be made in the wages given in the civil service, accompanying any reduction in the cost of living...
...Their homes to administer the offices...
...Take for example the office of Sheriff in Queens...
...He was retained...
...These interests are lightly assessed while the masses are heavily assessed...
...We are loaded up with extra jobs and bureaus that are useless...
...On his shoulders is the cumbersome and costly structure of the boro government...
...The consequent regulation of prices and reduction c.f wast...
...Harold Laski, H. N. BraUsford, among them: of the members of the left-wing Independent Labor party,—Fenner' Brockway and the "wild men from the Clyde", and of trade unionists and the rank and filers...
...fouridstlje Jj»( better crder...
...The best that can be done is "rationalization...
...to their proposals...
...The Teat Soon to Come This has been but a beginning...
...October 19th...
...In past yetts when I visited the great, sprawling capital of the British Empire, after admiring again its majestic House of Parliament and glinting at tbe impreaefve araroes of Gladstone and Disraeli and Qoeen Viaoria and Milton and William Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey and marvelling ar the architecture of St...
...Same glvs Kb p. ernment a year and others IwpTIatBk WHERE THE SOCIALISTS DIFFER The Gulf Between the Socialist Party And the Two Old Parties By James Oneal An Address Over \>\ E, V. D A s the Socialist candidate for President of the Borough of Queens I wish to emphasize the gulf that yawns between my conception of politics and that of my opponents...
...Since the Chancellor doesn't present his own budget to Parliament before nex: Spring a hundred per cent assurance of funds cannot now be given this time, 'What budget Snowden will be able to get through the House is in the lap of the gods: what taxation sy:t:m for raising the desired amount vrilj be approved, can only be guessed...
...That end is the use of this social power so that the masses of renters, workers, and home owners win be conscious that it is being employed to make conditions more healthful and bearable, to solve the problems of transit and housing, education and general social well being...
...How it affects us may be illustrated by the following...
...Henderson, Mr...
...Thousands of fortunes hare lately been mode a result cf the increment of land values...
...Too often the easy chair politicians have itching palms...
...On unas of this brawny man is also a huge MS pipe the significance of which vasal not dwell upon...
...The big load is carried by the home owners and renters and it is heavier than it should be because easy chair politics to the ally of big property interests...
...And then there are the proposals of Lord Sankoy to reorganize much cf the antiquated legal procedure in England (he has already appointed several commissions to report on these problems >: the bringing of all pensions under the control of the Commissioner of Pensions...
...In this way we are duespaying members of the party machines and it is a logical outcome cf the view that politics is an end in itself...
...Evan the Tory press had to admit that Labor scored a great victory, and declared Henderson's statement most admirable...
...I had honed that Labor, even as a minority government, wculd be able to nationalize the mines...
...stated a lift-wing critic of Mac Donald's policy, "and that is the problem of disarmament...
...Interest in such politics ends on election day...
...on coming to office, immediately appointed J. H. Thomas...
...Investigation would reveal side snaps to these offices, all of which are filled by partyworkers and for whose party work we payout of borough funds...
...Our interest does not end on election day...
...His assessments go up from year to year...
...A private snap has been banded out...
...If elected to the office I would consider it one of my first duties to make a complete survey of tbe Boro Government...
...f£ Tbe government is doing every* thing it can to secure an international agreement for the evacuation of tbe Rhineland...
...That is bad enough as it is a species of poUtical parasitism, but in turn those who sit in public easy chairs have intimate relations with big contracting corporations, with powerful real estate concerns, public utility companies and other corporate leeches...
...It has encouraged municipal authorities and others to submit proposals for the development of their electrical and other works...
...All spoke freely their honest thoughts, giving thenbest impressions—though usually not for direct quotations...
...It is a social power, yet many regard it as a private snap or as a prize to be awarded to one of our acquaintances...
...Labor voted to raise the age at which boys and girls might enter industry from 14 to IS years, with provision for maintenance of the children in case of necessity...
...It announced its intention to improve the widows' pension act and the various social insurance acts and has reversed the policy of the former government in reducing the state quota to the unemployment insurance fund...
...What he and the Labor Party are doing to England we can do here...
...e But perhaps the most distinct step * forward in international relations was taken in connection with Egypt Psychologically the forced resignations of Lord Lloyd as British representative in Egypt was one of the best things that happened to the Labor party...
...MacDonald decided to let up on Britain's building program pending a settlement with America...
...Captain Wcdgewood Benn...
...He is engaged in one of the most important diplomatic missions in modern history, a mission involving no less than the peace of the world...
...It has begun the formulation of plans for slum clearance cm a big scale...
...At present some 210,000 people are housed in buildings owned by the dry...
...Others, well-informed, behew $a its recommendzt.pns will be far a ft vance of any report submitted by a ah ish bady and that ftvmay point the aj to a solution of the Indian problem...
...It wouldn't get a majority support...
...Permit me to illustrate what I mean...
...8:45 PM Also other poets...
...Snowden believes that these increments should largely be conscripted for the public gocd Cf course the income and inheritance taxes will likewise come in for radical chances with the hope of roduotng present inequali.ies and of securing enough ior saeial needs...
...Neither can you...
...will probably be cne of the most <Stfti international problems with whan ft party will be confronted The present dxlre of th...
...This view is the utter degradation of politics...
...Nevertheless, he has the confidence of many elements in Oreat Britain who are suspietcus of the other cabinet members and is likely to get support for his iJ'.ans that many ethers would lack...
...It is an excellent example of the idea of t>oLitics as an end in itself...
...Lard Lloyd resigned...
...campaign document...
...Taxes far Placemen The old conception of politics as an end in itself and tbe franchise as a means of awarding private snaps to men who make a profession of politics also has the result of creating more snaps to pass around...
...sought views of All sections Daring my stay In England I sought first and foremost to find out what might he expected of the British Labor minority government...
...He was more reactionary than Baldwin...
...It is ready to withdraw all British troops from the Rhineland at any time...
...The end with them is to see that the voters payparty service with public salaries...
...It is a notorious fact that heavy direct taxation cf people always provokes profound discontent but if the money is taken out of their pockets in an indirect way the voters will stand for it...
...The chieftains cannot ply their trade a single moment after we withdraw our consent to the type cf politics which thev redresent...
...urglns him to give his O. II...
...The Mines Problem In the third place, there is the very knotty problem of the mines...
...Here is a clerk, or a machinist, or a small shopkeeper, or a man just enterine a profession...
...We are just as much interested in what happens after election day as what happens on that day...
...Q> The party is awaiting the report t the Simon Commission in the litter an of the year...
...There is one problem which MacDonald can be depended upon to tackle with all the enthusiasm at his command...
...He is one of the least socialist!:: of the members of the Cabinet and is Intent on immediate results whether they lead toward or away from a co-operative system...
...He dug into the State papers and made a slashing reply: "I never saw sush a hammering...
...Having learned too late what is happening, we then begin to make inquiries as to how much it costs us to support this system of easy chair pontics...
...The result is an expensive official bureaucracy filled with party chiefs who have constant access to the borough's public funds...
...It has power to do so only in extreme emergencies...
...This is natural and he does not complain but it is a notorious fact that he pays a heavier rate than the big and powerful corporations do...
...Housing and Health Foremost A second drive of the Labor g.-ve -<• ment win be a drive for slum clearance...
...What the Labor government decides it wants to da, that Philip Snowden will try to find the money somehow for, In international affairs Labor will continue along the line of the pas: few months...
...It Is conceivable that ambassadors may be appointed In early November...
...Of course it will be limited by what it feels will be likely to secure a majority vote...
...Whan Parliament opens in late October, the government can be depended on therefore to present a fuU program of legislation, supplementing its Spring proposals...
...Easy chair pottftl an expensive and unnecessary hoary...
...elected as or...
...These big interests are nursed by the easy chair brigade...
...of the biggest problems — cutoite of those already mentioned—wUl be wh-.t is to be done in India...
...Many fecl» that the TsSi and Liberals will allow the party t»ir* in effioc for 13 months or two ftrhporhaps until the time for the oanV ting cf the cecend budset roCs araafttl the Sprlnj of 1912...
...Paul's, I would find myself sooner or later in aecleston Square, the headquarters Of tbe British Later party, and there speculate with Arthur Henderson or Arthur Oreenwood or Jlmmle Middle ton as to when Labor might have a real show, or take tea with the encyclopedic aad genial Webbs at their Grosvenor Street house oa the banks of tbe Thames or snatch a moment from the busy fire of Ramaay MacDonald in his well-stocked library in Hsmpetead...
...Winston Churchill and Lord Birkenhead, though knowing of the controversy about Lloyd in their own ranks, twitted Henderson an the forced resignation...
...As I am speaking to you tonight there is enroute across the Atlantic the Premier of the British Government...
...If the party brokers filling useless places in our borough and city ^governments were to send their agents direct into our homes and cei:eet from us dues to pay their salaries" there would be a political overturn in this city...
...It has passed a bill appropriating $135,000,000 for developments at home...
...the voters, support the system cf polities as an end in itself we are as much responsible for the plundering, the graft, and paying party leaders out of borough funds as the party chieftains themselves...
...The bills presented by him wffl be worth following...
...How that power wul be used is of importance to you and your families...
...Astride tbe sewer yhj is a man in prison stripes, two taw who died in disgrace and a ttrits la) was mysteriously murdered...
...Tbe London City Council constructs in tbe neighborhood of 80009000 houses a year...
...He may have paid for it or may stm be paying for it...
...There is the Sheriff and Under-sheriff with fifteen deputies, or seventeen in aU...
...If he makes an investigation he discovers what may be discovered in nearly every city in this country...
...They permit looting of the masses by the corporate leeches and they secretly share in the loot...
...His Majesty's Government does not actually build bouses...
...Instead of coUecting from us direct they create useless offices, fiU them with party workers, and then collect the salaries for party service from the taxes that are paid by the voters...
...Before proceeding, it Is necessary far one constantly to keep in mind that the Labor government is still a minority and not a majority government...
Vol. 9 • October 1929 • No. 10
