Men Behind the Elections

During the week the politicians were active in the election campaign which now sweeps the United Kingdom:

Premier Baldwin spoke at Reading and Bewdley to enormous crowds. At Reading he said: " I never thought there was a sufficiently large bed in this country to hold Asquith and Lloyd George, but they have climbed into the same one, and I think we will wait until morning to see which has kicked the other out." At Bewdley he outlined his general policy and said he knew what he was up against. The opposition seized upon the salient point of the Premier--his pipe. Free Trade posters depicted him smoking " Baldwin twist" in it and producing fumes labeled " high prices," with the inevitable John Bull in the background pinching his nose and saying: "The smell is enough." A cartoon entitled

Choked showed the Premier drawing furiously at his pipe, which is marked " Trade " and filled with " protective mi ture." A conservative poster, however, showed him smoking a mixture of tariff slogans with evident enjoyment. The voter is asked to " put this in your pipe and smoke it."

Lloyd George, surrounded by megaphones, microphones, amplifiers, bands, bunting and banners, left London to address 5,000,000 throughout the country. The ex-Premier's speeches, one in London and another in Glasgow, were confined to an all-round attack on the Labor and Conservative Parties. In an attack on Protection, the ex-Premier set himself some questions: " When a man comes forward and says: 'I am putting forward myself for the position of managing director in a concern,' a humble shareholder like myself answers: 'Well, you have been at your job five months; what have you done?'

"He replies: 'Not much.' "Then I say: ' What have you done with the credit of the country ?' "He says: ' It has gone down.' "Then I say: 'There is another difficulty--the settlement of Europe; what have you done with that?' "He says: 'It has got worse.' "Then I say: 'It seems to me you are all making a mess of things,' and he replies: 'Sir, you are abusive.' "

H. H. Asquith confined his activities to Paisley, where he attended a Party meeting in the company of ex-Premier Lloyd George. The Chair-man opened the proceedings by stating that the marriage of the Liberal Party was celebrated in London, but that the honeymoon was to be spent in Scotland. Mr. Asquith said: " In the presence of my right honorable friend and colleague, I may say that his presence here is conclusive and sincere evidence that we are at one." Mr. George said: " It has been a deep and sincere grief to me that we ever separated. It is a real and sincere joy to me to find ourselves on the same platform and side by side in the same battle."

J. Ramsey MacDonald spoke against Protection to the miners and reminded them that in the U. S. it had made massed capital more powerful than massed labor.

H. G. Wells, who is contesting London University for the Laborites, championed capital levy which he described as "a special conscription of credit from rich men for the general need in a time of profound eco-nomic distress."

Winston Churchill, standing for the Liberal Party at Leicester, animadverted upon the Government's conduct in refunding the U. S. debt. " With a little patience, tact, management and good-will," said he, "we might have secured from the United States far better terms than the extremely onerous conditions to which we have subscribed. With a great man and a great Government I believe it would be possible to have used these negotiations as a means of bringing the United States to the council chamber of Europe."

Sir Robert Home, at Glasgow, said: " What is the good of telling us that Free Trade won the War. It was won by the support of the finances of both France and America, both great Protectionist States, and we are still paying our debts to Protectionist countries."

Lord Birkenhead, ex-Lord High Chancellor, in a speech at the Constitutional Club in London, backed up the Government. Said he: " The Free Trade system had wholly failed to equip the Government with many instruments which were absolutely vital for the purpose of conducting the War. When the War broke out, under the shelter of tariffs, those who were menacing this Empire with destruction had equipped themselves with weapons available and adequate for our destruction, while we were left almost helpless for defensive purposes."

Lord Balfour, veteran, said that the Tory Party was in peril. In his inimitable and pedantic style he said: " I look forward certainly not without hope--but not without anxiety-- to the result of the election."

The Press. With 90% of the British Press in the hands of Lords Rothermere and Beaverbrook (TiME, Oct. 22), they are possessed of more power to control the fate of the election than any other men. Despite the fact that as a business enterprise they are at one, it became evident that there were some differences in their political views.

Lord Rothermere, in an article entitled Should Free Trade Have One More Chance?, which appeared in The Sunday Pictorial, favored Protection but condemned the Government's action in calling a general election and the Conservative Party's program, which, he said, was too meagre and could not cope with the unemployment question. " In any case," he continued, "the next Parliament cannot last more than twelve or fifteen months."

Lord Beaverbrook, in The Daily Express, pronounced himself distinctly favorable to the Liberal Party, whose policy of Commonwealth development (TiME, Nov. 26) apparently appealed to him. Said he: " The Conservatives are only holding back from a cut-throat food policy because their leader is afraid. The Liberals, on the other hand, are advancing slowly toward the conception of imperial preference."

J. L. Garvin, brilliant editor of The Observer, a Sunday paper, as a comment upon the journalistic giants, said: " Behind the scenes there are some personal issues, even more satirical than the electioneering terms of the fiscal controversy. The ex-Premier has said no word to estrange the press trusts under his friends, Lords Gatherem and Botherem. Though nominally economists, they aspire mightily to rule the land and to crab Mr. Baldwin because they hope that Mr. Lloyd George at the head of a queerer coalition will yet be their man. That may easily become an issue in its way as big as the capital levy."

Taken together it appears that the Press, undisputed as its power is, has only succeeded in making the muddy election water a whole lot muddier. Anything may happen.