In our first leading article we have expressed our admiration
of the courage of Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Snowden in telling their fellow Socialists that the country must obey economic laws. Yet the General Council of the Trades Union Congress could not believe, or would not admit, that the starvation of the people was an inevitable result of the teaching by which they have raised themselves to leadership. This doctrine has been in effect, whether they see it or not, that the purse of "the State" is inexhaustible. To admit that its ex- haustion was in sight last week demanded a recantation which was too much for them. In the Cabinet, where the facts were known, the refusal of several Ministers to face them fills us with shame and regret. It is said that Mr. Henderson led the opposition to the Prime Minister. As Foreign Secretary no one can know better what financial collapse means to a civilized country. But the successful organizer of Trade Union politics prevailed in him. After admirable work as Secretary of State, in which he won the confidence of the Foreign Office at home (he will be missed there with genuine regret) and of Governments abroad, he could not stand the supreme test and tell the Unions that he had learnt the errors of the doctrine on which he had reared them. We do not wonder that some should fall away, like a house built of cards, in such a storm, but we are surprised that Mr. Graham had not the strength to support Mr. Snowden, and we regret that Miss Bondfield should not have followed the lines implicit in the Blanesburgh Report and in the lessons that she has had to learn in administering the Unemployment Insurance Acts.
