GREAT BRITAIN: General Election

"My lords and members of the House of Commons ... in bidding you farewell, I earnestly commend you to the merciful protection and guidance of Almighty God."

Thus from the Throne spoke George V last week, prorogued Parliament, plunged his realm into what Laborite William Graham called "one of the most savage elections of modern times."

In his high silk hat, in his bankerish tailcoat, Labor Party Leader Arthur Henderson looks neither savage nor Socialist. But savage to British bankers seemed the election manifesto which mild "Uncle Arthur" was forced (by radical elements now ascendant in the Labor Party) to issue last week. Supposing that Labor wins the election, Leader Henderson, paunchy & bankerish, stands grotesquely pledged to fulfill as Prime Minister his new manifesto's savage terms. Excerpts:

"A decisive opportunity has been given to the nation to reconstruct the foundations of its life. The capitalist system has broken down even in those countries where its authority was thought to be most secure. . . . We must plan our civilization or perish. The Labor Party recognizes that the present situation calls for bold and rapid action. The decay of the capitalist civilization brooks no delay. . . .

"The country's banking and credit system can no longer be left in private hands. It must be brought directly under national ownership and control. The Labor Party is further convinced of the need to form a national investment board with statutory powers for the control of domestic and foreign investments. . . .

"The Labor Party . . . believes general acceptance of President Hoover's moratorium on War debts permits reconsideration of the whole question. It seeks immediate reopening of negotiations between the signatories of the Young Plan and the United States with a view to attaining conditions in which inter-Allied war debts and reparations may be canceled. . . .

"The Labor Party urges definite planning of industry and trade so as to produce the highest standard of life for the nation. As a first step it proposes to reorganize the most important basic industries—power, transport, iron and steel— as public services owned and controlled in the national interest. . . .

"Labor in power will remove the unjustified restrictions upon trades union activity introduced by the Tory Government in 1927. . . . The party pledges itself to reverse immediately the harsh policy of the National [MacDonald] Government in reducing unemployment benefits [the dole]."

Worried Emperor. Simple Arithmetic. Thus the party that once was James Ramsay MacDonald's pledged itself last week: 1) to nationalize the business of British bankers; 2) to wring cancellation of War Debts & Reparations from President Hoover* 3) to reorganize British industry a la Russe under an X-Year Plan; 4) to restore to British unions the right to organize another British General Strike (TIME, May 10 to 24, 1926); 5) to increase British dole payments (British unemployed added up to an official all-time record total of 2,825,772 last week, almost 10% of the electorate).