tradition is likewise
hostile to such a tendency. But in Britain the industrial ferment has
gone much further than with us, and such a result was inevitable. By
taking advantage of the British experience, of the closer ties now being
knit between the two democracies, we may in America be spared a stage
which in Britain was necessary. Indeed, the program of the new British
Labour Party seems to point to a distinctly American solution, one in
harmony with the steady growth of Anglo-Saxon democracy. For it is now
announced that the word "labour," as applied to the new party, does not
mean manual labour alone, but also mental labour. The British unions
have gradually developed and placed in power leaders educated in social
science, who have now come into touch with the intellectual leaders
of the United Kingdom, with the sociologists, economists, and social
scientists. The surprising and encouraging result of such association is
the announcement that the new Labour Party is today publicly thrown open
to all workers, both by hand and by brain, with the object of securing
for these the full fruits of their industry. This means the inclusion of
physicians, professors, writers, architects, engineers, and inventors,
of lawyers who no longer regard their profession as a bulwark of the
status quo; of clerks, of administrators of the type evolved by the war,
who indeed have gained their skill under the old order but who now in a
social spirit are dedicating their gifts to the common weal, organizing
and directing vast enterprises for their governments. In short, all
useful citizens who make worthy contributions--as distinguished from
parasites, profiteers, and drones, are invited to be members; there is
no class distinction here. The fortunes of such a party are, of course,
dependent upon the military success of the allied armies and navies. But
it has defined the kind of democracy the Allies are fighting for, and
thus has brought about an unqualified endorsement of the war by those
elements of the population which hitherto have felt the issue to be
imperialistic and vague rather than democratic and clear cut. President
Wilson's international program is approved of and elaborated.

The Report on Reconstruction of the new British Labour Party is perhaps
the most important political document presented to the world since the
Declaration of Independence. And like the Declaration, it is written
in the pure English that alone gives the hi