NOTES 631 



unity than other poHtical parties. But internally it is less 

 united than its rivals, and many of its difficulties spring from 

 acute differences which are not publicly debated. It is often 

 easier to pass a meaningless resolution for which every delegate 

 to a congress can vote than to fight out a controversial issue 

 on a platform ; but this method of compromise leads to wooUi- 

 ness of thought and a tendency to shirk realities. Labour has 

 not yet the same debating ability as the older parties, and its 

 deficiencies in this respect have done it harm in the present 

 Parliament. It has doubled its numbers ; it has certainly not 

 doubled its effective weight. It has attracted the respectable ; 

 it has not yet produced a leader of genius. 



These troubles may disappear in time, for Labour is still only 

 in its initial stage in politics, and its organisation is not com- 

 plete. Its eventual position, however, must remain uncertain 

 for another and a deeper reason. 



In the psychology of man, and consequently in his politics, 

 there are two fundamental and contrasted elements — liberty 

 and order, which correspond roughly to the dynamic and static 

 elements in nature. Of the old historic parties in this country, 

 Liberalism has usually been more identified with liberty, and 

 Conservatism with order. Labour has attempted to escape the 

 antilogy by organising itself on a class-basis ; but this has 

 admittedly been found too narrow and is breaking down, since 

 Labour now appeals to the middle-class intellectual, the '* brain- 

 worker," and the " black-coat," to vote for it. The chances of 

 politics — or, rather, the convenience of a party feud — may 

 revive the class-basis for a time, but in a country like England 

 class-consciousness has never been a decisive, and it now seems 

 a diminishing, factor. It is not that there are no classes, but 

 that there are too many ; the sharpness of the divisions is 

 blurred by the number of sub-divisions. Labour itself has its 

 own class-divisions no less than the rest of the nation. 



The issue of a class-fight may, therefore, be dismissed. It 

 is a piece of occasional tactics ; no more. The conflict with 

 Capital may last longer, either as a real issue or a platform phrase ; 

 but Capital is as permanent as Labour, and the thoughtful 

 Labour leaders smile at the crude idea of " abolishing " Capital. 

 What they want is a working agreement, a co-operation between 

 the two, in which Labour meets Capital on equal terms. 



But these things are economics, and therefore secondary 

 and impermanent ; neither Capital nor Labour in the current 

 sense of the words is two hundred years old, and both are 

 obviously changing before our eyes. On the other hand, the 

 question of liberty or order is primary and permanent. And 

 on this Labour has manifestly not yet made up its mind. Its 

 natural instinct, like that of most Englishmen, is towards 



