Ramsay & Seaham

Tense and weary one 10 a. m. last week Scot MacDonald boarded The Flying Scotsman. As she puffed out of London a dining car steward offered place tickets for lunch and the Prime Minister took one. Snorting swiftly North, the famed express had crossed one-third of England before luncheon bells rang. With scant appetite the leader of the "National Government" forked food mechanically. Into the diner walked a lifelong friend, Arthur Henderson, leader last week of the Labor Party which Mr. MacDonald led a few short weeks ago. The two men neither spoke nor nodded, cut each other dead.

At Durham, famed cathedral town, The Flying Scotsman made an unwonted stop. Nearby lies Seaham, the Laborite constituency which Mr. MacDonald still represents in Parliament, though excommunicated from the Party. As everyone knows, Seaham's Laborite Council has demanded that he resign his seat (TIME, Sept. 7). But the Prime Minister returned to sullen Seaham last week, convinced that he could explain and justify his policies, hoping that Seaham would have him for her own again as a Laborite. Repeatedly Scot MacDonald has exclaimed to his new Conservative and Liberal colleagues in the National Government, "If only I had time to talk to the British working man!"

Seaham's working (and jobless) men raised no cheer for. the Prime Minister. But a few women shrilled encouragement, heartened him to lift his hat and bow slightly as he entered Seaham Labor Hall. Inside. Seaham's 80 Laborite Committeemen, who always before had received Scot MacDonald standing & cheering, sat expressionless in their 80 chairs.

A great speaker, a mellow and winning orator, James Ramsay MacDonald spoke long and loud.

"I have been a Socialist all my life and I will always remain one!'' he was heard to shout. "The national emergency compelled me to take the steps I have taken! ... If the crisis had not been met, the classes I represent--the Labor classes-- would have been the first to suffer!"

Seaham's 80 heard Scot MacDonald to the end. They then voted that the Seaham Labor Party will not ask him to stand again for Seaham, still demands his resignation. Amid more women's cheers, the Prime Minister emerged, rode away from Seaham white-lipped, went to bed in a sleeping car bound for London. On the train, Scot MacDonald perused Scotch papers telling of savage riots by Scotland's working class.

At 6:00 a. m., the train drew into London, but Mr. MacDonald did not awake. No one called him until 7. Swallowing a cup of station tea, he drove to No. 10 Downing Street, put on fresh clothes, drove to Buckingham Palace--the place where Prime Ministers resign.

Perhaps George V cheered up his discouraged subject. On leaving His Majesty, the Prime Minister launched into a new series of high-pressure conferences. David Lloyd George, sick and known to oppose an immediate election, was hunted out by Scot MacDonald in his very bedroom. As conviction grew that the Prime Minister had made up his mind to an election, something snapped in the Seaham Labor Party machine. Two Laborite groups broke away, wired the occupant of No. 10 Downing St. that he could stand as their candidate.

Meanwhile the 31st annual Conference of the Labor Party opened at Scarborough. "An election is so near," warned Leader Arthur Henderson, "that we must keep our lamps trimmed and almost lighted!"

Few days later Scot MacDonald announced immediate dissolution of Parliament, Britain to vote Oct. 27 in General Election. Defying official Laborites to do their worst, excommunicated Laborite MacDonald swung into the campaign with these fighting words: "I shall remain a Labor member and shall fight as a Labor candidate. I shall use the colors of the Labor Party in whatever constituency I go to."

Most Liberals were expected to fight with the Government, but a bedside bulletin declared that Mr. Lloyd George will lead as many Liberals as he can muster against Mr. MacDonald, thus splitting the Liberal Party wide. Labor will be more or less split as personal friends within the Party swing to "good old Ramsay." Observers saw Britain retaining in effect to a two-party system, all candidates marshalling for or against the National Government.

Victory for the Government should firm the pound, restore confidence in the Empire as a concern with stable management. Victory for the Labor Party decisive enough to put Arthur Henderson in power would launch Britain inevitably on the rocky road to "Socialism in Our Times!" Expert British opinion absorbed by Scot MacDonald in the past three weeks, from everyone who should know, is that the National Government stands to win.

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