The British 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