IV

POLITICS

34-i

Good behaviour to resist it, because mostpresent-day active Liberals, whilst ready onoccasion to vote Labour and to act with Labour ,would not feel comfortable, or sincere, or inplace, as full members of the Labour Party .Take my own case. I am sure that I am lessconservative in my inclinations than the averageLabour voter; I fancy that I have played in mymind with the possibilities of greater socialchanges than come within the present phil-osophies of, let us say, Mr. Sidney Webb , Mr.Thomas, or Mr. Wheatley. The Republic ofmy imagination lies on the extreme left ofcelestial space. Yet—all the same—I feel thatmy true home, so long as they offer a roof and afloor, is still with the Liberals .

Why, though fallen upon such evil days, doesthe tradition of Liberalism hold so much attrac-tion? The Labour Party contains three ele-ments. There are the Trade-Unionists , once theoppressed, now the tyrants, whose selfish andsectional pretensions need to be bravely op-posed. There are the advocates of the methodsof violence and sudden change, by an abuse oflanguage called Communists , who are committedby their creed to produce evil that good maycome, and, since they dare not concoct disasteropenly, are forced to play with plot and subter-fuge. There are the Socialists , who believe thatthe economic foundations of modern society areevil, yet might be good.

The company and conversation of this thirdelement, whom I have called Socialists , many