TOPICS OF THE DAY.
'WHAT W 141, HE MY ?
WHAT will he say ? What will he do ? How will he fit himself into the fiscal fight ? Such are the questions which have been eagerly asked throughout . the country during the past week. As we write, the Majestic,' with Mr. Lloyd George on board, is approach- ing British waters, and by the time these pages arc in our readers' hands his ship will be preparing to tie up at the quayside in Southampton.
Before, however, we deal with what is likely to be the attitude of Mr. Lloyd George towards the political situation we must say something as to his American visit. Happily, there is no difficulty whatever in speaking in the spirit in which every organ of public opinion would desire to speak in welcoming a distinguished statesman back to England. Mr. Lloyd George has unquestionably done high service to his country and to the world by his speeches, and by the tact, as well as Aoquence, with which he addressed his vast audiences.
He made no mistakes, he offended no one, and he gave no one an opportunity to misconstrue his words or his feelings. Such negative praise may seem somewhat cold at the first view, but it is not intended to be so, nor is it so in fact. To speak so much to audiences so diverse, so critical, and so eager, as those who flocked to hear Mr. Lloyd George in Canada and the United States, without once rubbing anyone the wrong way, is a high accompl ishment.
But Mr. Lloyd George did far more than win this negative triumph. He did a very great deal towards influencing American public opinion at the spot where it most needed such influence. His influence was educative and reassuring, and so specially valuable in regard to American participation in the re-establishment of Europe. He helped to make the American people understand that we are opposing the destruction of the German Republic by France, not because we are lickle-minded, or selfish, or jealous, or callous about the old wounds of France, or because we want " to pet " the Germans, but because we realize that the policy of the French Government means ruin for their country and for the rest of the world, including America.
And now for the burning question—Where will Mr.
Lloyd George place himself? With whom will he act, mid what will be his policy ? The first point to note is that the political arena seems already fully occupied. Mr. Lloyd George will not want to range himself under any banner but his own. But the banners of Free Trade and of Protection are already in other hands. The same must be said of the banners of Socialism and Semi- Socialism. Even the old Ducal Limehousc Banner has slipped out of the hands which originally raised it. Yet to attain to power and office—the goal, the perfectly legitimate goal, of every politician—Mr. Lloyd George must have a policy, and a policy, if possible, personal and distinctive. Above all, it must be a policy which can command followers and fill them with zeal and enthusiasm, can give the voters an alternative to the political wares offered by other groups. Where is this policy, and where are these followers to be found ?
. It has been rumoured in London that Mr. Lloyd George will find the policy on which he can found something in the nature of a new party in the Temperance question. We arc far from committing ourselves to this 'view, or from predicting that this is what is going to happen in the course of the next few days or weeks. At the same time, we can see a good many reason- why the idea should attract Mr. Lloyd George. We can hardly doubt that while he was in the Middle West he saw a great deal to move him in the working of Prohibition. Prohibition is often in the Eastern States a veritable nightmare. It breaks up the ethos of the city—we use the word in Aristotle's sense—and makes good citizens into law-, breakers, corrupters, or, at any rate, tolerators of corrup- tion and anarchy. In the Middle West, Prohibition, as Mr. Lloyd George must have seen, far oftener means what has been succinctly called "the abolition of Monday morning." It is calculated that the decrease in liquor consumption has not only added half a day to the worker's week in America, but has made the other five and a-half days much more efficient. How naturally might the question fall from Mr. Lloyd George's lips, "How can you hold your own in the markets of the world with a people who have no Monday morning,' and who never lose time ' in wiping their lips or passing the can ? "
But Mr. Lloyd George would not be likely to forget what he saw in Canada as well as what he saw in the United States. Canada will have shown him a better way of pushing Temperance than " hard-shell " Prohibi- tion. In Canada all the indications, including the Referendum in Alberta just declared, point . to State Purchase as the solution. But State Purchase is one of Mr. Lloyd George's old loves. Though it was "the girl he left behind him " when he attained to the Premier- ship, we should not be surprised to hear of him as he comes down the gangway humming that charming French tune, " On revient toujours a nos premiers amours."
State Purchase, in truth, holds the field for anyone who, as we are sure is the ease with Mr. Lloyd George, is genuinely desirous to mitigate the evils of over-drinking. It is the solution for all who want, not so much to prohibit the consumption of even a modicum of liquor, as to prohibit any private person from earning a profit, however unwillingly, by making or helping to make- his countrymen drunk, or, at any rate, by inducing them to consume that extra glass which is morally and physically injurious, but on which the ultimate profit of the trade is often based. State Purchase, again, is fair to the Trade as well as to the consumer, which American Prohibition is not. We cannot in this country spread ruin among the Debenture or Preference shareholders in Brewery Companies. The thing is impossible. But State Purchase and State sale and manufacture not only smooth the path of Temper- ance but admit of the fullest Local Option. If any local group of the community says by a competent majority to the Government : "None of your liquor.
selling here," there is not the slightest risk of the Govern- ment ever forcing on that group even the best ordered of State public-houses.
But how about the voters ? Will they support a politician whose leading plank is Temperance ? We will only attempt to answer this question by asking another. How about the women voters ? Of these there are some nine millions. If they vote as women, and not as wives, we may be pretty sure of their answer. But will they so vote ? Who can tell ?
If it should turn out that Mr. Lloyd George has decided to seize the Temperance plank amid the vast mass ol political wreckage that is now afloat, we may offer him a piece of advice. He will be wise if he adds the Refer- endum to his electoral outfit. He will get many doubtful votes if he frankly says that any State Purchase Bill must be referred to the country as a single issue before it Comes into operation. That is clearly fair and right. So serious a matter cannot be allowed to take its chance at the jumble sale of a General Election.
J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.
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