TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE DANGER OF ABSTENTION.
AFORTNIGHT ago, and before the Dissolution was announced, we, as convinced Unionists and sup- porters of the Government and its general policy, urged on the Ministry the necessity for Cabinet reconstruction prior to an appeal to the people. We pointed out that this course was absolutely necessary to prevent abstentions. We urged, that is, that there were thousands of electors who, rightly or wrongly, were not willing to give a blank cheque to the present Cabinet, and who wanted to be assured before the Election took place that there would be a recon- struction of the Cabinet, and a public guarantee be thus given that the Administration would be reinvigorated and placed on a more• businesslike footing. At first our demand was regarded as impracticable,' impertinent,' visionary; and what not, and even sinister and 'unac- countable' motives were sought to account for a proposal which, of course, had in reality one aim, and one aim only,—the strengthening at the polls of the only party which we believe can under present circumstances be safely trusted with the management of the nation's affairs. This attitude of indifference to, or even amuse- ment at, our absurd proposal.' has, however, passed away, and in view of the facts that have been forced upon men's minds by news from the constituencies, we now find in many quarters, and all of them quarters which cannot possibly be suspected of disloyalty to the Unionist party or Government, strong expressions of opinion in favour not only of reconstruction, but of pledges as to reconstruction being given before the polls. For example, the Daily Mail in a leading article on Thursday, headed "Why Electors are Apathetic," speaks in the plainest terms as to the need for reconstruction. The Daily Mail, after dwelling upon the proofs of apathy, finds the reasons for that apathy to be two. First it places the belief in many quarters that the Election is a fore- gone conclusion. "Secondly, and far more important, is the annoyance which exists within the ranks of the Imperialist party. Unionist voters, staunch hitherto, are telling candidates on all sides that they will not go to the poll merely to return what is known as the old lot." Something more, the Daily Mail declares, is required by the country than mere general promises of reform. "The Government must give the electors something besides pious assurances and the honeyed talk of minor luminaries. In a word, the nation ought to know the name of the man who is going to reorganise our Army." After dwelling upon the ineffectiveness of the War Office under the present regime, it con- tinues :—" The resignation of Mr. Goschen, a hard- working Minister, to make way, it is to be presumed, for a younger and more expert organiser, has suggested that other and more needful resignations are to come." Until, continues the Daily Mail, the country feels sure that the right men are going to be put in the right place, "neither the feeling that anything is better than government by a Campbell-Bannerman and a Har- court, nor the admiration so generally felt for the splendid and courageous fight which Mr. Chamberlain is making," will suffice to arouse the electorate. In a word, "the Government, the leaders of the Imperialist party, must first do their duty fearlessly and remorselessly by giving us a capable Administration. Then they can call upon the voter with effect to do his duty in his turn. There must be not merely apologetics and promises ; action is required to show that Imperialism is in deadly earnest in the cause of the Empire. The policy of keeping in office the men who have failed in the past can only help the Little Englanders ; that it is helping and encouraging them no one who is at all behind the scenes of the present Election campaign can doubt." That these words are to a very great extent true no one will deny who has taken the trouble to• find out the state of opinion among the electors, we will not say in a constituency where a specially eager party fight is taking place, as, say, in Oldham, but in ordinary and normal con- stituencies.
Another example of the trend of public opinion among even the most thoroughgoing Conservatives is to be found in the Globe. The Globe of Tuesday in an able and tem- perately written article dwells almost as strongly and more in detail than the Daily Nail on the uecessity for a reconstruction of the Cabinet. "It is not likely, not even possible," it says, "that exactly the same distribution of public offices will continue." The Globe goes on to point out that "an occasional infusion of new blood is as essen- tial to the vitality and to the usefulness a the Cabinet as to that of a Board of Directors or of the Bench of Judges. Men who were in full vigour five years ago may well claim to be shifted to less onerous posts ; in some eases the round peg has been set in the square bole. A measure of readjustment is as salutary as it is neces- sary." With this we are in entire agreement, as also with the further declaration that times are too critical for the country to be content with anything short of the very best and strongest Cabinet that can be got together. There are plenty of good men available, but experience has shown " that the experiment of so large a Cabinet has not been satisfactory, and the country would gladly see a return to the earlier practice." The very best administrator we have should, we are told, be sent to the War Office. As to the need for separating the Foreign Office from the Premiership, and so securing a real Prime Minister, the Globe speaks with an earnestness and a sense of responsibility that are strongly marked. The enormous difficulties of the post of Secretary for Foreign Affairs render it, says the Globe, eminently undesirable that it should be any longer held conjointly with another office. "Lord Salisbury has rendered services to the nation and to the world which the present generation hardly recognises at their full value, but to which posterity will do ample justice. The Unionist party desire, no higher reward than to be allowed to continue to serve under Lord Salisbury. While he lives they can own no other leader. At the same time, the demands of foreign affairs cannot fail to withdraw him in some degree from that general superintendence of the Cabinet which is the essential duty of a Prime Minister." The significance of these words will be seen to be very great when we remember that the Globe is one of the most loyal and consistent supporters of the present Government. No one could possibly accuse it of wavering in its loyalty to the Unionist party.
In truth, the more loyal an organ of public opinion is to the Unionist party the more strongly will it urge the need of reconstruction. It is, we believe, of the utmost im- portance to the causes with which all thoughtful Unionists are concerned—i.e. those of the Union, of a sound settle- ment in South Africa, and of administrative efficiency-- that the Unionist party should be returned in full strength. But the only certain way to secure this result is to make it clear that reconstruction will take place, and to announce the general lines on which it will be carried out. If that were dene even now, and at the eleventh hour, it would pre- vent thousands of abstentions. Unionists, though dissatis- fied, would feel justified in giving a newly organised Cabinet an opportunity to do their best. It is the fear that we are to have the Cabinet, the old Cabinet, and nothing but the old Cabinet that takes the heart out of Unionist workers. We cannot ourselves defend those who contemplate absten- tion on these grounds, for we would infinitely sooner have an unreconstructed Cabinet than a Campbell-Bannerman Cabinet or a balance of parties, but we cannot blind our- selves to the facts,—and one of them is that many Unionists do not realise the danger of abstention and must be given no sort of excuse for indulging in that fatal luxury. But it may be urged that though this is true enough in the abstract, the present circumstances do not permit of reconstruction, and that, therefore, the risk of abstention, owing to no scheme of reconstruction being announced, must be endured. The circumstances that forbid recon- struction at present are said to be the General Election. If, it is urged, the Prime Minister were to reconstruct his Cabinet before the polls, he must offend a great many people. There are men who now expect office, but who would not and could not get it, and these men, it is insisted, would show their resentment, and so injure the party. But surely this is a very absurd argument. The men who were disappointed would be, for the most part, Members of the House of Commons, or rather at the moment Unionist candidates. But these men, however much disappointed, could not show their annoyance by asking the electors not to vote for them. That would be a form of cutting off their noses to spite their faces which need not be expected. No doubt some men must be disap- pointed, but these disappointed men would be every bit as dangerous after as before the polling. Next, vague constitutional objections are urged, but these are clearly untenable, because we have already bad one change in the Cabinet. What has been done by Mr. Goschen could be done in other cases. Cabinet remaking is admittedly very difficult work, but it is not made easier by being postponed. In fact, it is made harder. Now the Prime Minister can tell his colleagues that he must go to the country with a new team or he will be at a disadvantage, and no valid answer can be given to him. After the polls the existing Cabinet Ministers can most reason- ably say We have one and all received a new mandate at the elections, and there is no reason for any change. In fact, the verdict of the country is for the old Cabinet, and no new Cabinet can possibly receive so strong a sanction.'
One other objection will, we foresee, be urged to the demand for reconstruction. It will be said that it is now far too late to do anything, and that, right or wrong, the Government must adhere to their policy of silence. We deny that it is too late, or, rather, we should say that though the announcement of reconstruction will be late, it will be better late than never. The mechanism of announcing reconstruction at this hour is not, we fully realise, easy, but it is by no means impossible for Lord Salisbury to find ways Of communicating to the country the knowledge that certain members of the Govern- ment will retire altogether, that others, like Mr. Goschen, will not continue in their present offices, and that in the case of certain new men he will without delay take the Royal pleasure in regard to their appointment to important offices. We shall not attempt to indicate who are the men who ought to go, to say what changes of offices are advisable, and to speak of the new men available. That is not our business, but the business of the Prime Minister. We will only say that we are as strongly of opinion as ever that we must obtain a real Premier by separating the offices of Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, and that Lord Salisbury must remain Premier.
Let those who wish to realise what would be the prac- tical value of an announcement of the kind we have indicated, were it to be made by the Prime Minister even on Monday, consider the effect in any one constituency. They will find, we venture to say, that the only really telling card played by the Liberal candidate is the accusa- tion of administrative inefficiency and Cabinet inertia. All his other points fall flat,—his Pro-Boerism, his per- sonal indictments of Mr. Chamberlain, his Home-rule zealotry, and his platitudes about doles to the landlord and the parson. When, however, he points out War Office muddles, insists that the Prime Minister does not oversee his gang properly, and asks pointedly what reason there is to suppose that things will be different in the coming Parliament, the Unionist elector begins to be stirred and the Unionist candidate to find himself in a difficulty. If only he could tell the electors that in sup- porting him they will not be voting for the old Cabinet, but for a substantially different and far more efficient one, he would have a thoroughly good answer to his opponent's keenest strictures,and the balancing Unionist elector would be quite willing to say : 'Well, let's give 'em another chance.' As it is, he can only promise vaguely that things will be different, and is at once answered by the other side with a 'Well, if they are going to be different, why should not Lord Salisbury say so ? His not speaking shows that there's to be no change.' Give the candidates the right to assure the electors on the word of the Premier that such and such men are going, and that such and such offices will be filled either by new men or by changes, and there is hardly a constituency in the country in which the Unionist poll will not be increased by seven or eight per cent.
If the Premier remains obdurate and will not speak, there is only one thing to be done. Candidates must act on their own responsibility, and must pledge themselves to insist on reconstruction at all costs. If that is done we shall no doubt obtain reconstruction, but in a way which will be peculiarly embarrassing to the Government and at a considerable sacrifice to party homogeneity. When, however, issues so serious are involved those results cannot be considered too minutely. At all costs abstention must be stopped, or we may be face to face with the terrible disaster of an equality of parties, and the Irish Members holding the balance.
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