The Political Parties
ONLY a fortnight ago action and speeches in Parlia- ment moved us to write on the present state of our parties, and to point to the benefits that the moderate Liberals, best represented perhaps by the Liberal Council, could confer on the country by co-operating for a time, at any rate, with the Unionist Party. While they refuse co-operation with the Right, as the French would call our Conservatives, Tariff Reformers and Unionist Free Traders, and yet have not the agility of those bred among the mountains of Wales, who can skip to the Left, their talents are hidden; muffled in a napkin and lost to their country. We deeply regret this limiting of what might be fertile and constructive to a mere critical part, either altogether barren, or only destructive of the policies put forward by others. Therefore, we return to the subject when our opinions are reinforced by the publication, on the eve' of the meeting at Buxton of the National Liberal Federation, of an appeal from Sir Edward Grigg to Liberals and Conservatives.* Sir Edward is a man of wide experience in public affairs, though not especially in Party politics. He is a very able and persuasive writer, as readers of the Round Table found. We welcome his pamphlet for its own merits rather than because we think that the writer exercises great personal influence on any following of politicians. We need not go into the details of his proposals to-day. But he is a Liberal ; he will not support the Labour Party ; he thinks that he could work now with the Unionists. He strikes a sympathetic chord when he pleads that he and any who agree with him should keep their name of Liberal alive by labelling themselves plainly as Liberal-Unionists, for that is what the Liberal Spectator did when we were driven to co-operate with the Conservatives over Home Rule.
It is vain to ask of any Party since the War gave such an impetus to State Socialism and the regimentation (a suitably objectionable word) of the country under official- ism, that it should proclaim the individualism that had for its watchwords personal liberty and personal responsi- bility. The habit of looking to the State to do this, to the Government to forbid that, grew too strong during the years when freedom was rightly subordinated to the orders of those who had to unify from above the efforts of a people nearly threatened with destruction. Yet there remain seven thousand in Israel who, calling them- selves Liberal, remember that their name recalls a love of liberty, and see the negation of it in the Socialism of the Labour Party. If they turn to the Unionists they do not find much comfort beckoning them. That Party has an old tradition of authoritarianism and a newer one of tam- pering with the freedom of exchange. If they listen for
* Three Parties or Two? By Sir Edward Grigg. (Ernest Bann. 28. 6d. net.)
the battle cry, " peace, retrenchment and reform," they will find the first and last words shouted with equal vigour on either side. But retrenchment is scorned upon their left. On their right it has received lip-service and little more of late, but so serious is our economic state to-day that the Unionist leaders now set it in the fore- front of their programme, and that is where true Liberals would set it in their own to-day.
Let us grant that the confusion and depression, espe- cially in our economic life, are so serious that authoritative direction from " Government " is necessary : let us also swallow, however painfully, the verdict that a tariff for revenue is necessary because the Unionists in power were not firm enough to retrench and the Labour Party has flung our money about until other forms of taxation will cease to be productive (and our export trade is crushed by fiscal charges that make competition with other countries impossible). We have also to grant that there is no chance at this moment for a moderate Centre Party such as we should like to see in power, nor even for a Centre Party strong enough to act as a bridge or a buffer between two parties in danger of appearing to be " haves " and "have-nots " brought up against each other face to face. For what Government then can we hope to save the country after an election by a rigid and a stimulating economy ? There are Tory hot-heads already pawing the ground in impatience to sweep the country. But the by- elections bring no conviction of any real turning of opinion on an overwhelming scale. The strong protectionists within the Party load it with a handicap of many pounds weight, for on their account the Party will be widely and fiercely accused (whether fairly or unfairly we cannot argue to-day) of intending to raise the price of food. Again, there is no sure estimate of the strength of the " New Party," starting with the cry that may attract many voters, " Something must be done." We would, therefore, earnestly advise the Unionists to refuse no possible access of strength and influence. They had, we believe, a better chance of attracting Liberals months ago, but let them not despise a lesser chance to-day. We hope that not only the many Unionist Free Traders, but also all moderate Conserv- atives, will urge their leaders to grasp at any chance of attracting the moderate Liberals. To the Liberals, meet- ing at Buxton, we make bold to say that many of them will find a more congenial resting place for the time in the Unionist than in the Labour Party ; and, above other considerations, they will find more scope for exercising an influence commensurate with their undoubted talents. If they will agree in that, we doubt not that they will agree that it is their duty to their country to put at her service those talents which seem otherwise to be con- demned to exhaust themselves in a vain beating of the air.
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