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In short, Conservative Baldwin tried to give the impression that a vote for the Liberals is indirectly a vote for the Laborites, Socialists, "Reds." In the great days when Gladstone was the pillar of Liberalism such an imputation would have been merely absurd; but today the Liberal Party is led and dominated by mercurial David Lloyd George, and should the 'balance of power' ever come into his hands again he is only too likely to side with the Laborites.
Of Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Baldwin said grimly: "One piece of campaign literature we are going to use will be the writings of Mr. Lloyd George in the foreign press at a time when our country was struggling and in difficulties." This referred to the Welshman's syndicated feature articles to William Randolph Hearst on the subject of the "British General Strike" (TIME, May 10 to 24, 1926). Conservatives hope to tag Syndicator Lloyd George with the political high crime of having been in sympathy with the strikers.
In polishing off the Liberals, Orator Baldwin popped an epigram: "The Labor creed is Socialism with the courage of its convictions, but modern Liberalism is Socialism without even the courage of its conviction."
"Safeguarding." Keenest disappointment was voiced by many Conservatives that the Prime Minister's speech did not announce as an issue "Safeguarding," or in U. S. parlance "Protective Tariff."
Almost tearful were the pleas for protection voiced to the Conference by many an industrialist delegate, including one from Sheffield who cried: "Forty-three more of our blast furnaces have been shut down in the past twelve months! If the steel industry isn't safeguarded, I predict that not a single blast furnace will be operating in England by the spring of 1931."
The Prime Minister, who lost the election of 1923 on the "Safeguarding" issue remained deaf to all such pleas, although he himself is in the steel business, and only said:
"Safeguarding was introduced by the [Lloyd George] Coalition Government and now has been experimented with for seven years. It has been shown a success in some industries. Many of the members of our party, I know, feel it ought to be extended rapidly. But it is not wise in a democracy to go too far in front of public opinion. The British public is slow to make up its mind, but it is thinking hard. . . . Today even Labor wants to restrict the effect of unfair competition from abroad. Only the Liberals would repeal the Safeguarding Act entirely. The Government is ready to facilitate safeguarding if individual industries prove the necessity of their being protected."
Clearly these weasel words mean that Conservatives will have to hush up "Safeguarding" as an issue, because "Stability" Baldwin, although personally approving it, fears that the British public is still traditionally made up largely of "free traders."
Significance. On the whole Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's platform speech was negative and uninspiring, but admirably and typically Conservative. It was the speech of a warmly beloved British leader whose personal hobby is keeping pigs, and who consistently manages to "muddle through."