"Prosperity!"

Citizens of the U. S. have forgotten with what dread their revolutionary ancestors heard that Newfoundland had been made the war base of the British fleet. Soon the harbor of St. Johns teemed with captured U. S. merchantmen. In those days George Washington worried about what was happening in Newfoundland. Last week it was George V who worried.

A sufficient cause for Royal qualms was the Newfoundland Parliamentary Election of last week. Swept out of power was Conservative Prime Minister Frederick Alderdice; and swept in was Liberal Sir Richard Anderson Squires. The "Liberality" of Sir Richard is such that his principal henchman, Sir William Ford Coaker, has said:

"The true destiny of Newfoundland, with her fisheries, her forests, and her mineral wealth lies in the direction of the United States. . . . The Dominion of Newfoundland is coming around to the idea of choosing to become one of the States. ... At present if a referendum were taken on this subject it would carry by a 75% vote of the whole electorate, not because Newfoundland has forgotten the old flag, but because the tendency of the times is to consider dollars and cents first. . . . Ten per cent of our population are continually going to and coming from the United States. . . ."

Fortunately for the peace of mind of George V, these evolutionary if not revolutionary sentiments do not yet represent the overt policy of Sir Richard Squires, victor in last week's contest. This quiet, sharp-featured businessman affects collars with rounded ("Hoover") points, spectacles, and a reassuring air of being no revolutionary.

The avowed policy of Sir Richard Squires is to bring to Newfoundland both Canadian and U. S. "dollars and cents," by fostering exploitation of the illimitable Labrador forests, whence comes most of the wood pulp for Canadian and U. S. news organs, magazines, books. Ostensibly Sir Richard is perfectly willing that the Labrador forests should be transferred to the Dominion of Canada--for a sufficiently stiff price. But the exceedingly harmonious relations existing between him and the International Paper Co. with headquarters in Manhattan suggest that Sir Richard thinks a stiffer price can be got from Wall Street. The blatant nonsense about merging Newfoundland with the U. S. is probably a mere advance guard of publicity to prepare Newfoundlanders for U. S. dollar penetration.

The political upset of last week is unquestionably attributable to the depressed condition of Newfoundland fisheries and other industries.

The electorate, disgruntled, has clearly been swept to the support of Sir Richard Squires by his clever "dollars and cents" campaign. It is difficult to imagine how George V can now avoid calling him to the Prime Ministry. True he was charged by the Crown Prosecutor in 1923 with malfeasance and accepting funds from private corporations; but a Newfoundland grand jury found "no bill," and the nasty charges blew over. Triumphantly last week Sir Richard counted up 28 seats for his party, against the Government's 12 in a Parliament of 40. Gallant, the man with the Hoover-tipped collar attributed his victory to "Newfoundland's womanhood"--since this is the first election in which Newfoundland women have had the ballot. Some 30,000 maids and matrons, all of whom had to be over 25, voted for "dollars and cents," or in U. S. parlance "Prosperity."