The Independent.Labour Party Easter was enlivened for the politically-minded by
the annual Conference of the Independent Labour Party at Birmingham, With -Mr James Maxton in the Chair, his perennial rival of the Scottish branch of the I.L.P., Mr. P. J. Dollan, in a challenging mood, and Mr. W. J. Brown in a state of suppressed emotion, the atmosphere was electrical enough. More heat than light, however, was generated. Mr. Maxton in his address " placed " his school of thought midway between the evolutionary Socialists, and those who, like the Bolshevists, seek results by catastrophe. He conceived the function of the I.L.P. to be that of the Labour Party's taskmaster, and he and others explained that the present Government was living in sin, because of its friendship with the Liberals. Mr. Maxton seemed to think that discipline was necessary to bring members of the I.L.P. (some 200 Members of Parliament) to heel, although almost in the same breath he protested against the suggestion that the Parliamentary Labour Party should discipline representatives of the I.L.P.
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