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Much will be heard of the New Party later. With Lady Mosley's inherited millions Sir Oswald can do some mighty tub thumping at election time. But last week Britain ignored his curious program: Eco-nomic salvation of Great Britain by a "restricted dictatorship" which would "co- ordinate all industry," emphasize "modern methods," steer a middle course between Conservative tariffs and Labor free trade.
Unless his policies are adopted, Sir Oswald warned last week: Great Britain faces "degeneration ... to the position of a third-rate power!" For today "the nation drifts, in hopelessness and despair, to industrial failure and unemployment, followed by wage cuts-and an all-round reduction in the standard of life."
¶ Took a serious view of the "Lib-Lab Split" which developed last week when Liberal statesmen succeeded in grafting so many emasculating amendments onto the Trade Disputes Bill that the Labor Government moved to drop it from the current House of Commons session. The bill would legalize "sympathetic strikes." It was forced upon Scot MacDonald by the trade union wing of the party.
¶ Rejected 258-to-130 a Conservative motion to save $80,000 yearly by providing that M. P.'s should travel third-class at the Treasury's expense, instead of first-class as at present. "Traveling third-class to Aberdeen," cried an anxious Scotch backbencher, "is the nearest ap- proach to Hell I know."
¶ Read with violent but mixed feeling the Prime Minister's speech-of-the-week. Addressing the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce he tremulously cried:
"Will our people stand shoulder to shoulder through this trying time and come out triumphantly with their heads bloody but unbowed, or will they respond to those unworthy counsels from so many quarters to take their investments abroad, to undermine the foundation of all our national credit in order to seek false security in foreign investments?
"I would rather die by the dikeside in the days that are to come on account of my poverty than use opportunities now to find shelter holes by transferring pounds sterling into some foreign coinage in order that I might feel secure at the expense of my national credit."
*By order of the London Head Office of Thomas Cook & Son, last week, the wages of "all our employees throughout the world'' were cut between 2½% and 7½%