TOPICS OF THE DAY.
DEMOCRATIC UNIONISM AT PLYMOUTH.
WE must return, on the occasion of Mr. Baldwin's speech at Plymouth on Thursday, to the subject of Democratic Conservatism. What Mr. Baldwin said we cannot record, for these pages were being printed while he was speaking. But, though we arc ignorant of that, we have no difficulty in describing what, in our opinion, he should have said. We are firm believers in Mr. • Baldwin's ability and sincerity. If he could feel free to act on his own impulses, and would do so, we should have few fears as to his conduct of public policy. Our anxiety is lest he may think it his duty not to impress his own views on his colleagues and followers—lest he may sacrifice his own views out of that inverted loyalty which has so often been the ruin of the statesman under a representative system.
To begin with, we hope that Mr. Baldwin emphasized that what the Government stands for is not a negative or reactionary policy but a policy of progressive action. They must not be content to be static, to bid us guard what we have got, or to bury our political treasure in a napkin. The Unionists are the party of Democratic and Constructive Conservatism, and they must not be afraid to proclaim that fact and to make their actions suit their spirit and their words. They must not merely oppose the Labour Party, which is their opposite number. They must carry the war into the enemy's country and show that if Democracy means government according to the Will of the Majority, as it must, they are the true Democrats and mean to make that Will of the People operative.
There are, of course, many ways of making Conserva- tism democratic in spirit, but the way the Government should always choose is the road of boldness and direct- ness. They must not be frightened of frightening their supporters. They must lead, not follow.
We are fully aware of the nature of the answer that will be given to what we confess sounds a little like a tiresome truism. We shall be told that the Government cannot quarrel with their best supporters, who must always be considered and consulted, and so on. That is true, but it is equally true that Governments may quite as easily fall from other causes than a failure to please all their friends. Bowing to somebody's half-hearted guess as to what this or that section of a party would like is often more dangerous than a firm, clear line taken by a Prime Minister on his own responsibility. There is a story of M. Thiers which should be marked and learned by all Prime Ministers. Some time after his fall he was arguing with a friend about the policy which might, and in the friend's opinion should, have been followed. Thiel.; banged the table with his fist in protest : " If I had done what you say I should have done, the Govern- ment would instantly. have fallen." He forgot that the Government fell anyhow, and that therefore his policy of fear and negation was certainly a failure. As to what Mr. Baldwin's next move should be in Foreign Affairs, General Smuts has given an excellent lead. In Home Affairs, and especially in the matters of Unemployment, Housing, and, above all, Finance, Mr. Baldwin must be equally bold.. lie must run risks,, or rather he must not think that risks can be avoided by half-measures, for risks and politics are inseparable. By pleasing himself he will very likely find that he has pleased far more people than he imagined possible.
There is one point of supreme importance on which we hope that --Mr. -Baldwin touched at Plymouth. It is, at any rate, one as to which he will have to take a line before long if he is to do what we are confident he desires to do—that is, to make the British Constitution safe for Democracy. He must give us a constitutional reform which will lodge an ultimate veto over legislation in the hands of the Majority of the People, and so make the unjust usurpation of power by a minority impossible. This, translated into action, means that we must reinforce our Parliamentary institutions by the Refer- endum or Poll of the People. On vital questions, and whenever there are signs that the Will of the Majority is being obstrUcted by the working of other influences, the People must be given the opportunity to exercise the right of veto over the legislative projects of their representatives. Our Members of Parliament should prepare, deliberate and mould our laws, but to the People belongs the final word, the inalienable right to give the last " Yes " or " No."
Until the institution of the Poll of the People is ours and is exercisable on all matters of moment we can have no secure Democracy. It is the only armour against Group and Minority rule. These forms of rule, as even so keen a party man as Mr. Lloyd George acknowledges in his new book, are great and growing dangers to our Representative and Parliamentary institutions. There is little need to restate in the Spectator the arguments in favour of giving the People a right of ultimate veto over the decisions of their Representatives. The People cannot rule directly in any community which has more than a thousand or so of citizens, but they can exercise the right of veto, if they think it necessary, on legislation submitted for their approval or dissent. The repre- sentative system, unfortunately, if endowed with un- limited powers and working without proper restraint, can, and often does, result, not in Majority, but in Minority rule. When, too, as is almost always the ease under representative institutions, the Party System is superimposed on Parliamentarianism with something like rigidity, Minority Government becomes not merely a possibility .but a rule with only an occasional exception.
The party which holds the majority in an Assembly may be returned by a minority of voters, and that ruling minority may again be controlled by a minority within it --a minority who can blackmail their colleagues by the threat of desertion.
Yet this mighty instrument of legitimate power, the Poll of the People, is at the moment lying idle—an object of fear and hatred to the Reactionaries and the Revolu- tionaries, and unhappily so far treated with almost contemptuous indifference by the people of good intent.
It is to this instrument that the ` .` Spectator " directs tlw special attention of the Unionist Party and its leader.
Let them take it in hand and make it an essential part of our Constitution. Let them bind the community with this cord of Unity and Solidarity. Then we can defy the spectre of internal disintegration based on the tyranny of a usurping minority. Once make the will of the majority the basis of the State and we need not fear Revolution, or Direct Action, or any other of the poisoned gases of a disorganized, disrupted and disunited commu- nity. - The Poll of the People is the oily Dictatorship which should be tolerated by freemen c f the English race. It is because the Spectator feels so st:on=fly the need for strengthening our Constitution in this respect that it makes " the will of the majority " its constitutional slogan, and , urges the Unionist Party to. concentrate on .this policy and all that it involves. If the present Parliament is dissolved before the People are given the right• of veto over doubtful legislation, the Government will have been guilty of a great dereliction of duty..
- J. ST. -LOD STRACHEY.
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