THE MERTHYR ELECTION. T HE Merthyr election is an event for
which the whole country must be deeply grateful. To say that it Is as good as a substantial victory at the front is in no way an exaggeration. It proves that the temper of the nation is absolutely sound on the problem of peace and war, and on the wise determination of the Government to apply compulsion if it should be necessary rather than starve our armies at the front of men. It proves, further, that we are a united nation, and that winning the war oomes before everything else—before Trade Union claims, before party loyalty, before humanitarian and pacificist appeals, and before Radical traditions. It is true that we have never doubted that the nation was perfectly sound on the main issue. That was a matter on which we personally have never felt the slightest anxiety. Unfor- tunately, however, there have been thousands of timid politicians--a class of men always specially ignorant of the real feelings of the nation—who have moved and had their being in a twitter of anxiety as to what those dreadful men in the North—the bogy always raised to check the ardour of the dwellers in the South—would say to this or that measure, or, again, how the policy of " Thorough " would be received by the Welsh miners. " It is all very well for the educated classes to adopt measures like compulsion with a light heart, but if you are not very careful you will find you have antagonized the working classes. But if you antagonize the democracy, how are you going to carry on the war 7 The only result will be that the -pacificists will make converts by the million, and you will be forced to agree to an ignominious peace." The next step of these bogy-mongers was to repre- sent the working man as at best indifferent to the war and its issues, and likely at any moment, as they would put it, to force us to make peace, should the Germans be clever enough to propose some scheme which looked reasonable and humane, though in fact it might be highly dangerous. As we have just said, we have always known these counsels of timidity to be utterly baseless and utterly foreign to the nature of the British people. Though our people find patriotism too great and too holy a mystery to be profaned by common talk, the sacred flame is alight within them and ready to blaze forth. The less educated, or perhaps we should say loss sophisticated, our men and women, the less they care to unveil the mystery or to wear their patriotism on their, sleeve. But though we and thousands of others have known this to be the truth, it has been very difficult to convince the men who take a pride in being, what they call cool and unexcited observers. When they tell you that, though the love of fighting is deeply ingrained in the British, they know nothing and care nothing about that love of country which flourishes so freely in France, Russia, and Germany, it is often hard to offer such people proof to the contrary. Happily the Merthyr election gives proof positive of the nation's feeling in regard to- the war. The election was fought under conditions which might very easily have procured a result pointing in exactly the contrary direction. The miners of South Wales were said to be utterly in- different to the war. The whole weight of official Trade Unionism was directed against Mr. Stanton. His opponent had the active support of the leader of the Independent Labour Party and of the pacificists and humanitarians— supposed to wield a great, if cryptic, influence in our midst. At the same time, the beaten candidate had the support of a member of the Cabinet, and therefore moderate men might have felt that, by securing the return of Mr. Winstone instead of Mr. Stanton they could not be doing any harm to the Coalition Government or interfering with the prosecution of the war. From every point of view, if there was a place in which an anti-war mandate, or what seemed like an anti-war mandate, could be obtained, it was at Merthyr. All the incidental conditions were un- favourable to Mr. Stanton. He had no political or electoral machinery in his bands. That all belonged to his opponent. He was, indeed, without material resources, and had to fight his election single-handed. It is said that he even had to put a bill of sale upon his furniture in order to pay the necessary out-of-pocket expenses, and that he had literally nothing left for - a candidate's ordinary expenditure on printing and paper. Yet with all these handicaps against him, and nothing in his favour but his direct and sinCere appeal to his countrymen to send him to Westminster to support the Government in carrying on the war and beating the Germans—a simple issue urged in simple language and with complete sincerity—he carried the election and beat as formidable an opponent as it was possible for any man to have by a majority of over four thousand votes. After that who will dare to say that the working classes of this country have no real interest in the war, and have to be managed, coaxed, and coddled in order to induce them not to throw over our Allies, leave Serbia and Belgium to their fate, and tell the German War Lord that the people of Britain are indifferent to the issue of the war as long as they obtain their high wages and their food ? All such dishonourable cant has been blown to the winds by Mr. StantOn's victory. That victory has, however, done more than merely show the true attitude of the nation towards the war. It has also shown how hollow is the anti-National Service bogy. At the very moment when the poll was taking place at Merthyr the canvassers under Lord Derby's scheme were putting in practice throughout the country that form of conscription which we have elected to adopt instead of the more regular variety of compulsion. If compulsory National Service had been the unpopular thing it is supposed to be, a thing against which the people would be ready to revolt, how comes it that Mr. Stanton, after saying that ho was ready if necessary to be a double- conscriptionist, obtained the huge majority that ho did It cannot even be argued that the people of South Wales were selfishly. indifferent on the question because they knew that miners would be largely exempted. At least half the population are not miners, and in any case Mr. Stanton's speeches show that if necessary, ho would be quite prepared to make every class of the population liable to National Service. Tho issue was as clean cut hero as could possibly be desired. His opponents cannot have it both ways. They denounced him as a compulsionist and he won as a compulsionist. There is one other point which we would ask the bogy- mongers, in the Government and outside, to remember at the present time. The Spectator is being told by thousands of critics that it is mad to suggest compulsory abstention from intoxicants during the war. The working classes, it is said, would not stand it for a moment. Any Government that proposed it would be wrecked, and we should have the horrible spectacle of the nation sharply divided when for the purposes of the war unity was essential. " For Heaven's sake," say the bogy-mongers, " don't dream of harrying and worrying the working classes over a glass of beer. Compulsory thrift in such a matter might easily be our ruin." That, we venture to say, is as complete nonsense as was the cry that the working classes would never tolerate compulsion, even if it should be proved to them that it was the only way to win the war. We are convinced that if the Government had the courage to give the order " Down glasses during the war I " they would find just as clear a response from the people as did Mr. Stanton when ho told them that if necessary he would be a double-conscriptionist. All that is wanted in the Govern ment is the courage of leadership. If they. have the courage to face " the trade " and the knot of hash Members who support " the trade," and do not run away from the bogy raised by these two groups, they will soon find the country behind them. No doubt the working man will go on demanding his beer as long as he is not told authoritatively that we cannot afford expenditure on intoxicants during the war. If, however, he is told that to make sure of winning we must turn down our glasses, his answer will be • " Swear off during the war ? Of course I will—but why didn't you tell me before ! "
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