546 



The Review of Reviews. 



December 1, liOi. 



The King and His Prime Minister. 



This interesting picture sliowing the King talking to " C.-B."' 

 was taken at Marienbad recently. 



advanced democratic lines has done more than any 

 other agency to make the programme of the Inde- 

 pendent Labour Party what the Americans would 

 call a thinkable proposition throughout the country. 

 To risk the undoing of the work of the last twenty 

 years by opening the door for the sworn enemies 

 of democratic progress would be a blunder in tac- 

 tics which the democracy of Britain would bitterly 

 resent. One does not easily forgive parricide. 

 [Cables state that the Municipal Elections just held 

 have gone in favour of the Moderates. This may 

 be prophetic with regard to the County Council 

 Elections.— Ed.] 



There is no need to get into a flurry 

 The Danger ^f alarm over the possibility of de- 

 Reaction. ^^^'' t>ut it is just as well to recog- 

 nise one or two plain facts which 

 ought to give pause to those who may be meditat- 

 ing a policy of division. The first is that the pre- 

 sent a majority has been in power so long that, for 

 mere love of change, many will " give the other side 

 a turn.'' (2) Many of the best of the Progressive 

 majority have gone into Parliament, and Mr. Bums 

 has left Spring Gardens for the Local Government 

 Board. (3) The Education question has not 

 strengthened the majority either among Churchmen 



Poplars PKjfZR L;ve — — 

 io-voavs 'k-uPiR ume ••••• 



COUHTH.'CS PAUPER LIN£.— ' 



t\j-r ',CrtW. /" 'S97 "^l-^ Crooirs mP 



_/"'' 6 (,J. T/ten came Ue i<^\ 

 fn^ictry. /axi/>fr/sTTi *ytflofl^n'>' 

 "ow(^St'fi(/fOi) stands 



a^ -43 /Ur ^000, aJaU 



p&^ fOOO 



rr 



This chart, reproduced by the courtesy of the " Local 

 Government Journal." shows the rise of pauperism in Pop- 

 lar from 32 per 1000 of the population in 1897 to 70 per 1000 

 in 1905. and the fall in figures since the inquiry was hesun 

 last January. 



or dissenters. (4) The loss on the steamboats, al- 

 though a comparative bagatelle beside the advan- 

 tage of the L.C.C. ser\ice, will be used to discredit 

 the policy of municipal socialism. (5) And. what is 

 perhaps the most serious danger of all from the 

 point of view of the Independent Labour Party with 

 its Socialist programme, is the Poplar inquiry, 

 which in the public mind illustrates and empha- 

 sises the evils inseparable from the introduction of 

 I.L.P. principles into Local Administration. Of 

 course this ought not to tell against the L.C.C. 

 whose most conspicuous representative, Mr. Burns, 

 instituted the inquiry which exposed the Poplar 

 scandals. But we are not dealing with things as 

 they ought to be, but with things as they are, and 

 with such difficulties to overcome it is little short of 

 treason for any one who cares for progress and de- 

 mocracy to adopt any policy which might have the 

 result of placing the enemy in power. 



