Rationalism

A movement is what its leaders make it. The British Labor Party is still being made. Until James Ramsay MacDonald became Premier, the Party suffered from a surfeit of leaders. There appeared none who had an authoritative ascendancy over the others. Result: the Labor Party became "all things to all men."

Although it is a mistake to label Premier Ramsay MacDonald "leader of the Labor Party," it has for some time been clear that his authority is being more and more recognized and appreciated by the rank and file of the Labor Party. Precisely how satisfied the rank and file are with Premier MacDonald is disputatious. But it cannot be truthfully denied that he rebuts radicalism with rationalism and thereby exercises a moderating influence on the hotheads whose political precepts are too often governed by erroneous reasoning and illogical prejudices.

A case in point appears in the July number of the Century: "The articulate opposition within the limits of Mr.

MacDonald's own party accuses the Prime Minister of being a Gladstonian Liberal instead of a Labor leader. They make much of his gold braid and his sword, and some of them charge him with liking better the amenities of the banquet table than the approval of a dingy hall full of workingmen." At York, he is reported as having said to his Labor audience : " 'They say I have fallen into bad habits. See that you don't. I should forget that I had a ceremonial suit, if I were not reminded of it by the press. We may be able to put on a funny sort of something sometimes; what does it matter? We put it on without thinking about it and put it away without troubling about it. When we lose our snobbery, our vulgarity, then we lose the real gold braid. What we want is to make a world in which we can hear more songs in our own lives, live more melodies.' "