Labor's First Night ? By FRANK H. SIMONDS Copyright, 1024 by McCiurt* Ncmxiwimt Syndicate London, March 8. ? In British public life, vastly more than i 1 our own ? although even in Washington it plays a part ? the social aspect of politics has always been important. i'olitieai salons^Tr^i^traaCT ion and dinners and routs pro :ar back of Thackeray and his Georgians. Thus it was that, when Labor won I its amazing, its astounding, victorv I iitKj th?- first hours of astonishment I haw bussed over, the question, tie* I dominant interrogation in certain I quarters mas: Will Labor have Its social phase. and if t-o how and I w iv? I The question had immediate perti- I i :ice \\f . -n. art. r the brief recess I ? -I lowing the fall or the BaldwLi ministry, the moment approached I when a Labor Prime Minister would i: ' t Parliament. Torlis and Liber I a!>, following immemorial custom. I Planned thel- dinners and their re ceptions?what Would Labor do? [ And then .Mrs. Noel Buxton, wife I of the famous Balkan champion and historian who is Minister of Agri culture in the new Cabinet, stepped into the breach and bade Labor wel come at a reception at a West-end hotel in London. Thanks to her hos I pita lity and thanks to the interven- ' lion on my benalf of Henry W. Nev inson. known and admired In Amer-i ! ica since the Washington Confer- 1 once. the most chivalrous champion: of lost causes and forlorn hopes in ! three continents and Innumerable ?Islands, it was my privilege to see Labor on this Its first night. The impressions which I shall try to set down here can only have a jalue if at all as they very imper fectly serve lo present ttte lrtcture-of something which had never before happened in Br'tlsh politics and will never certalnl> happen again in 1 quite the same way? the spectacle j of the men and the women of a new party freshly cc me to power un-' dreamed of. a mingling of Labor leaders, intellectuals, miners. Cabi net Ministers, one Prime Minister one Lord Chancellor, a thin sprinkl ing ol Lords, old and new, poets, historians, editors, essayists, social workers and social authorities, all the elite, ail the brains, not a few of the hands and *ome of the stout est hearts of an authentic revolu tion, suddenly brought together un der the spell of victory, still under the thrall of a triumph so unfore- ' seen as to impose a certain silence, lest the fatal wrong word should 1 break the spell ani dissolve the real ity which seemed the mirage. It was perhaps ten o'clock, when Neylnson and I made our way into the hotel through the thin wall of bystanders waiting patiently against the assured coming of the Prime Minister, not yet arrived. As -we checked our coats at the bottom' of the staircase. I noted that my slip was numbered 760 and since we were among the latest comers it is fair to calculate that the whole par ty numbered alout 800. Climbing the twisted staircase we came ^Immediately Into an outer hall crowded with groups of people1 formed in little circles. Pausing for a moment at the staircase we paid our formal respects to our hostess and then were presented to the hap piest person T have yet seen in Eur Mnlster daUBhter of the Prime1 S'T"n* . |>e?lde her h oat ess, gravel) receiving and returning the ah e is older. but in her Bin, pip r tomor_ \?| I ? y and completely Prime hJr 1hr I* ",rl,aln- There was about 1 r. of >'outh Which sug gested that for her it wan all almost ?onJh*"i '^nd. ,her<> wa" beside* the touch of dignity that made her after *U ''7 ,er a daughter as unmls takabl> an the resemblance in her face to his. Patently it wan her first party and what a party, and to It she added lomethlng Indefinable but at once charmlnK and unmlstak able. Pausing this harrier of formal In troduction I followed closely upon ray gallant guide, now like a small boat attacl *d to a vigorous steam launch-; then losing ray hawser and fee ring as Henry of Navarre bade Ills followers, by the white oriflami , this time of Nevlnaon's locks, I be van the amazing circle of Introcuc tions. First by a Hidden right turn abrupt and unheralded I arrived al most in the arms of C. I'. Trevelyan President of the Board of Education,' and bearer of n name4 many times distlnmilsheo In British letters A left tun. and with equal abruptness 1 was cast upon the charity alwavs vracious of Pcthick Laurence and htisan Laurence, his wife, who to gether had won the final victory In the fircat war of "votes for women and are potent factors In the new I^abor group. And from their pres ence diagonally tJ) rough groups of Labor M. P.s thick as the loaves In the valombrosa, I came to a halt be fore Masslngham. perhaps the *reat r est of British editors and surelv one <>f the intellectual giants of the Rad ical cause In England. J **" eaught up In the W.. n vainly struggling after, was presented hreathlem to a keen va^uelv* ?*' eyebrowed gentleman. ?agt tly very vaguely perhaps, sug kf. ling the late I.ord Ilryce My name Nevlnson announced and then *eek coffee f?r some ?trlcken lady, the knightly soul he ?am"lv ?'fhI d7"rted me. A little lamely. I fear. I asked a name and was met with the smiling rejoinder '?n!! r T > 'winkling eye.,' Oli. 1 m Lord Klmberley," nnd so eaught in a narrow l?|e of safety nH>i*K*B?l" ,m* "n(l m? the nrltlah Revolution flowed ceaselessly and the tide ef socialism rose high* er and higher a vagrant American encountered his first Earl. As Nevlnson returned, there was a new stirring toward the center without immediately apparent reas on. A closely drawn group began to open ranks and presently ther.? emerged a compact, smilini:, k?H'U faced. tittle woman, whoso emerg ence brought from right and loft im mediate pleased murmurs of "On. it's Margaret.'* Again my faithful master, came into action and in an other moment nbash? d I stood fore tiie shrewd and uncomfortably appraising glance of Britain's first Cabinet woman. Miss Margaret Bondfhld. Next. while N? -vinson did an in cantation ov. r my head at another figure towering above me, 1 found myself !a the .presence of Gooch, th" historian whose recent book on the Nineteenth Century enlists the en thusiasm of all competent reviewers. Over my head still ho boomed a thunderous declaration that "Isola tion was impossible and America could not stay out." thus concentrat ing on me. poor cockleshell, that volley which I could wish might have fallen upon those battleships of isolation, Borah and Brandegee. From Gooch by devious turnings ' and twistings. by several poets. Just ly incredulous when Nevlnson gal- ' lantly and mendaciously affirmed my knowledge of their verse, gently 1 caroming off E. D. Morel, fiercest critic of France, of the Allies, of all > things. King Leopold's enemy of the Congo days. I was cast up like drift wood at the feet of Sydney Webb, President of the Board of Trade, father of the Fabian movement, at whose feet so tnanv have sat and still sit, the Cabinet Minister who in learning and in scientific prepar ation Is perhaps the best qualified Minister Britain has ever known. Then ensued an interlude in the course of which I encountered Miss Evelyn Sharp, whom last I saw new ly back from Russia, where she had performed marvelous and devoted service in the hideous famine time two years ago! Then Josiah Wedg wood, who sits for Arnold Bennett's "Five Towns." is in the new. Cabi net and never has been out of any debate for many years. Then came tangency to another lion, the target of many gentle jabs and of much amused banter, Colonel Thomson, when I last saw him. Then he was equally famous In Paris as the man who blew up the oil wells in Rou mania when the Germans broke through in 1917 and as Len in's frankest admirer in the Pari:? Peace Conference. Now he was Gen eral Thomson, tomorrow he would I be Baron Thomson. Labor's flr^t created peer, sent with two other | conscripts to represent revolution in the last citadel of feudalism. He, too. Is a Cabinut Minister, Secretary .for the Air, I Think, not wholly in appropriately. Beyond the staircase where T had mounted, there was a new stir and presently there came, wearing a cape coat, a square almost squat fig ure. Labor's greatest captive from the Liberal party. Lord Haldane, ? Lord Chancellor and Minister of War | in other Liberal Cabinets and now Lord Chancellor again. This was the I man who carried the messages to | Berlin, whose conversations with Tlrpitz did not prevent naval com i petition or avert the World War. the man whose famous and unfortunate phrase "Germany is myi spiritual home" cost him seven full years of national execration. Thanks to Nev lnson lie pave me a passing word with just a sly almost chuckling felnnce tinged with gentle malice hardly to be expected In an orator who once introduced "Sltt'.ichkelt" t to an amazed America. Next appeared Arthur Henderson, member of many past Cabinets. La bor's representative In coalition, now chief strategist of the whole army. Home Secretary in the new Cabinet, candidate in an pppro.ichlng byo electlon. holding In his party the po sition comparable to national clinir i.ian in -our own party system and held the greatest political organizer In British politics. Last to cotne. expected, awaited | that thi evening mluht be complete, was the Prime Minister himself. First there was a faint far ofT sound ing of cheers below, then a nol*e of feet on the staircase, a certain elec trical thrill In the air and Labor's first Prime Minister arrived clad like all of us In morning clothes, in the dress in which most, If not all. of these wonderful peonlo had done battl" for ldens and dream* against hard and grim realities. Mr. Mc Donald took his place beside his lit tle daughter In the receiving line nnd suddenly her face blossomed like that of a child when the Christ-, mas tree loi.jr admired in darkness comes alight with all Its many can dles. Of any formal demonstration there was nothing, neither was there any sudden rush: the leader had patently conic to his army but not with any manner of nuthorlty; and so In little groups without haste his captains and his private soldiers, women as well as men, rather more women than men. moved across to say good evening to "Ramsay" and pass tin. So In my turn Nevlnson compel ling and fortune favoring 1 was brought before Mr. MacDonald and Introduced, decorated with I know not what titles of journalistic emin ence. which I am relieved to believe' he did not hear. As he faced me1 the wap a tall, .striking figure, a far sober. sombre almost to the point of sadness, high cheek-bones, deep-net and piercing eyes, a rather narrow forehead, crowned with a wonderful mane of whitening hair, the one dis tinguishing detail. A little hard and grim the face was. just as the figure. broad, loosely hung, suggested the ' laborer ? although I belive he haa 1 never worked with his hands ? until suddenly the face lighted with a swift flash of his eyes, which seemed to break as an electric light when you press the button and what was dark becomes instantaneously Illum inated. A vigorous hand-shake, a kindly personal word of greeting, and I save way to others. Drifting away and watching at a distance the face seemed to me still more ruggea. witn a uf weari ness and yet ,of surviving reservoirs of strength. Looking thus at th's man who on the morrow would face Parliament as Prliue Minister It was impossible not ,to recall the vicissi tudes of ten years. Less than that space of time had paj'sed since he alone, in Parliament stood squarely avainst the declaration of war. The weight of a whole national, disap proval had fr.llen uppii him as it had In- Hi" Boer War time, yet he ha 1 never recanted, never modified his position. The press had lashed him; 1 ?iid even more painful circumstance, perhaps, his ?olf club In his "own corner ??f Scotland had east lilm out. Ev n his constituents had rtnnllv v? him |n Lloyd Georcc's khaki eh cUon. Yet now. himself unchang ing. nil about him had changed, and tomorrow he would be in fact Prltue Minister. Certainly rarely in politi cal history In England or out of it has there ever been such 'a transfor mation in the personal fortunes of one man. And now having perhaps with far too great detail described the out ward circumstances of this. Labor's flrst night. I would Justify myself by a few words of comment. There was in the very atmosphere some thing: which was in Itself almost Im possible to describe and quite be yond all forgetting. Here were gath ered in two relatively small rooms more than half of the new British Cabinet, upwards of a hundred mem bers of a new Parliament, ranging from dockers "and miners to Lords and at least one Earl. Here were men and women whose names are familiar from one end to the other of the English speaking world, men and women of letters, of scientific achievement, of social service, and. I think, save for myself and perhaps a Hindoo girl In native costume, there were no strangers. Here were men and women who over years in widely separated fields only slowly drawn together, had foeeji fightlnt: for a common cause. They had. If I may use the figure, been scattered in all sorts of outposts, unconscious of supporting troops, knowing only of the strength of the opposition. j And suddenly by the magic of a vic tory totally undreamed of they had been brought together here. Most, probably all of these people , were Radicals in the American sense, many of them extreme Radicals. Most of them had suffered .socially, ' , some even more directly for their faiths. Yet they were, swing them together, impressively British, Brit ish by race, by manner, by everv thing. That imponderable and mag-[ niflcent myth, the British Constltu-. tlon, might have given Its benedic tion without a qualm. Between all j these people only newly divided by Cabinet rank and official dignities there was something of the feeling you miiiht find in a company of sol diers who had together made a long campaign, not of weeks but of years, faced enemies and privations, tested each other in the long hours which weed out those of little faith and i weaker nerves. Now they had come through at last to victory and a sort ?f curiously Indescribable but uplift- j Ing sense not so much of the value of triumph as of that of comrade ship. I have been all my active life a political reporter. I have seen every; form of Americnn politics from the' election district on the East Side of I New York to the national conven-i tlon. I have seen party uatherings J In battle. In defeat and in vlptory. 'the nationally great under practical-, j ly every circumstance, *yet there was ; in this Labor gathering a spirit, a | something which J cannot better de scribe than say it was different from all else in my experience. It was I frankly a high water mark; thosr' I who were living it said With Just a j touch of that sadness which com plete success brlnus "It never can' happen again." Yet It had a qual Ity which you think of when you j | read of other creat and signifieant ( 'Movements In human history, high ? ndeavors carried forward by peo ple big and little, wise and even fool , Mi. move'd by the curious. Impelling Influence of n common cause and the , force of an Intercommunicated en thusiasm by which people are lifted out of themselves for the moment and do Impossible things ? alas, only for the moment, too. ? There was also In this amazing gathering a sense of essential dem ocracy. hardly to be quite paralleled in any American experience; Democ racy and that infinitely rarer thin-4 that the French demand, too. name ly. fraternity. 1 thiuk everyone was more or less conscious that the mo ment was transitory and that tomor row politics, the ordinary sordid compromising party politics, would supervene, that the hour would no* and could not he recaptured, yet it ?as the hour for which so r^.any in the groups had worked so long and lived so hard and would never al together forget even in. ultimate failure. Itefore 1 l?-ft America Mr. Hoover; told*, me that for him th?' odd. the ast'inisMng thin*, about the l.nulish men lu* paw and met and. heard of In c iid pari:! of t1?- wvrlii. men of ss. 'trade and commerce. wr r; thnj tl-ev wer? yoiu^ ev.t ever many lailda i?u.potn*.M-'nM. I Italy nubrac- ?! Fasci-* 1-Mxt in ISr.t - - tain I .a bo r Itself repulsed Lenin and middle and upper-class Britain re jected Mussolini. Deep down In the race there was and is a conscious nesa that much is wrong and many things must be changed, but alont; with this goes the unconquerable coi. vlctlon that all that Is to be done must be done in the British way. No party, no group, no leaders, have a monopoly on this new na tional sentiment. If Labor fails, it will promptly be relieved of power. It is not Labor's revolution, it i.s Britain's revolution. But it Is. ? believe it more strongly every Jay. a r ::l revolution destined oerhap? to chnnee everything but the sur face of British national existence and to have consequences far be yond tlw e\t<4lsive frontiers of the British Kmplro." \rul iK-rluips in ;i fnshlon which 1 ]' n li.-en quite unable to phrase ? ?\:u*:ly. nllliMtiuh I felt il strongly, ibis spirit vi'as tb? dominating fact' in Labor's first nijJit. 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