TOPICS OF THE DAY.
ARE THE ANTI-SOCIALISTS IN EARNEST?
THE question that heads this article is vital, and it is being asked in every quarter and by every section of the people. If the Anti-Socialists can give the answer "Yes," and prove its truth by action, then we need have no fear as to the result of the Election. If they fail to make the British people believe them, their future as a political force will be dark and precarious. We say" make the British people believe them "advisedly. It is no use for them to be content with their good intentions and their inner sense of virtue. They must give proof. They must leave no possibility of doubt in men's minds as to the reality of their professions. By their fruits ye shall know them. That is the test which will be applied, and ought to be applied, in a matter of such import. • To begin with, what open proofs that they are in real earnest have the Unionists given ? Up till now the answer must be : "Very few and very weak." What proofs can they and ought they to give ? The first proof that they should give, and this applies to the Liberals as well as the Unionists, is that they are willing to sink party differences in order to sustain the cause of Individualism and Freedom of Exchange, against Socialism. As long as the two Anti-Socialist parties are fighting among themselves the country will never believe in their sincerity. How can it ? The ordinary elector is inclined to be doubtful, nay, suspicious, as to the value of the highly-coloured promises of Labour and as to the price he will have to pay for class-consciousness and the rest of it. When, however, he sees triangular electoral battles going on throughout the country he soon loses his fears. "There 'can't be any real danger," he says to himself, "or these' men with so much to lose would never be at each other's throats. I needn't wake up and worry till they do "—and so he feels he can safely have a night out with Labour. "It will be a relief and do no great harm."
Not till the Unionists and Liberals have come to a firm determination not to play Labour's game through split voting will the electors take the Anti-Socialist propa- ganda seriously. Of that we have no sort of doubt. Therefore, with all the energy and emphasis at our command, we ask the two sections of the Anti-Socialist Party, for that is what they now are, to compose their stage combat and constituency by constituency see to it that there shall be no cases of sending to Parliament a Socialist who has only polled one-third of the voters. To allow Socialists with a minority of votes to be elected is to pave the way for minority, tyranny. Splitting by stray independent candidates cannot, we know, be always avoided, but these cases are abnormal and few. The important thing is that there shall be no official recognition of splitting on either side. Let the Unionists, as the bigger party, lead the way in promptness and generosity. They will never i regret it. The problem of how to arrange the Ministry, which ought to succeed and will succeed Labour if unity at the polls is secured, is a minor matter. Let us beat Labour before we worry over the re-distlibution of power. A good beginning has been made in Paisley—Mr. Asquith's seat. Let it be followed in the spirit and in the letter.
The other way by which the Unionists and the Liberals must prove their earnestness is by definiteness and bold- ness in putting forward not abstractions but specific proposals. Of the Unionists' amazing errors in tl i; respect we deal at length in our criticism of Mr. Baldwin's ill-starred address. Here we only say to them : "Offer fishes, not serpents." To the Liberals we say : "Drop your prejudices and your assumptions. You pretend that the Unionists are anti-Democratic. They are as Democratic as you are. Next, do not take it as a sound assumption that you can in these days enforce all the old Cobdenite principles as to Commerce and Free Contract. You cannot. For good or ill, you must meet a new situation with new endeavours. But, above all, do not make mole-hill differences into mountains when we are fighting for life and liberty."
Make the country understand that you are in deadly earnest and not talking through your hats when you say that a victory over Labour at the Election is essential to the welfare of the nation.
J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.
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