18 AUGUST 1917, Page 2

the cannot read the speeches of a large number of

the most responaibleleaders of Labour without a thrill of satisfaction at the courage and whole-hearteduess with which they back the policy of their country where theyAnowitto be right. The line taken by such men as Mr. Appleton, Mr. Thorne, Mr. Bowerman, Mr. Havelock Wilson, and Mr. O'Grady has not been praised sufficiently, and could hardly be praised too much. We notice in particular an article in the Illustrated Sunday Herald of August 12th, in which Mr. O'Grady sweeps away all subtle interwar and -hair-splitting distinctions between mandatory and consultative-Conferences and says outright that "the worst day's work ever done by the Labour and Socialist bodies of Great Britain was done at the Labour Con- ference" on Friday week. He writes as a good and true democrat who cannot restrain his passion :— " Wo have, given hope," hisser:, " to the only-remaining autocracy in the world to continue its course, strewn as it is with inexpressible horrors. We have fastened our boys in those horrible teeo.ches foc at least twelve months longer than necessary. We- have buttressed the terror bestriding Europe. We have given assent to the gospel that Might is Right, and we have damned democracy by showing that autocracy is fittest to survive."