Jack, who planted the beanstalk, was surprised when it sprouted high as Heaven. But he made a good thing of it, climbed up and worsted the Giant. Last week James Ramsay MacDonald, who planted his National Government in the doubtful soil of a General Election (TIME, Nov. 2, et ante), was simply astounded. "We appealed for a demonstration of national unity," he said. "The response has been far beyond the dreams of the most enthusiastic of us."
The election beanstalk had sprouted as none in Britain ever sprouted before. Century ago in the reign of King William IV there was something remotely like it. In 1831 the Second Earl Grey, Prime Minister, returned to Parliament with 370 Whig seats, the record party victory for all time until 1931. Last week the National Government of James Ramsay MacDonald returned supported by 476 Conservatives, 66 National Liberals, 13 National Laborites (including the Prime Minister) and 2 Independents. Total: the National Government holds the prodigious total of 557 seats in a House! of Commons of 615. Such miracles used to happen only in the tales of Mother Goose.
Baldwin Says "No" His beanstalk having sprouted, Jack-the-Premier had to cope with the Giant—or, as Cartoonist Callan of the Vancouver Sun aptly put it, with the Giantess.
No British law, no rule of Parliament bound Stanley Baldwin, party leader of 476 Conservative M. P.'s, to continue his support of Scot MacDonald, party leader of 13 National Laborites.
Mr. Baldwin might have withdrawn his support at once from the National Government. He might have claimed, as leader of the party which itself had won a majority in Parliament, that his right to be Prime Minister was clear.
But who wants to be Prime Minister of Great Britain just now? Certainly not honest Stanley Baldwin who. bungled the job when it was his and has more than a dim realization of that fact (TIME, Dec. 22). Mr. Baldwin and Mr. MacDonald are warm friends. They created the National Government on a friendly basis in dire emergency. Mr. Baldwin is English to the core. He loves fair play, he loves his pigs and his pipe (he bought a new cherry pipe last week, his only postelection exuberance). Also Mr. & Mrs. Baldwin fear God. They see all around them the workings of a Higher Power able to work even election miracles. Last week Stanley Baldwin said: "The election was an emphatic declaration by the people in favor of national cooperation. . . . That is my view."
When younger, militant, more ambitious Conservatives begged Leader Baldwin to put some kind of pressure on the Prime Minister, to demand at the very least that two-thirds of all ministries in the post- election National Government must be turned over to Conservatives, Mr. Baldwin knocked out his pipe and said, "No."
Scot MacDonald was soon able to announce that Honest Stanley had granted him what the London Times called "power to exercise his unfettered choice as to Ministers, regardless of any claim based on long party services or the precise proportions of parties in the ranks of his supporters." To exercise this choice the Prime Minister rushed off to Chequers, his official country seat, while London buzzed with predictions as to the