Mr. Baldwin alone among the party leaders seems to be
without bitterness, though his great disappointment might have provoked it. The first of our hopes for the New Year is that the conflicting parties may be recalled to a sense Of proportion and an appreciation of the realities. Let us get on with the solution of unemployment. There is irony in the reflection that at the very moment when Mr. Baldwin was telling the country that the only cure was Protection, trade was beginning to recover. The Times of last Saturday showed that in iron and steel, hardware and cutlery, engineering and shipbuilding, coal, cotton, pottery, wool, hosiery and in the chemical trades the outlook was considerably brighter. The figures of un- employment on the live registers tell the same tale. The number of unemployed was reduced by 43,000 in a single week. We desire, however, not to dwell upon the irony of the past, but to make our serious appeal for the future. There are many ways besides Protection of setting the unemployed to work, and some of them arc uncontroversial. Is it too much to hope that when Parliament meets it will remember that, though Constitutional questions and party tactics may be exceedingly piquant and exciting, the unemployed are still unemployed ?
