A B C of modern socialism

x PUBLIC POLICY

THERE is an unseen, intangible thing, the prerogative of the House of Commons, known as public policy. What is it? Unseen yet felt, intangible yet real, it is the eternal Delphic Oracle before which kings and rulers, soldiers and statesmen have melt for thousands of years. Quo vadis? they have asked. Prophets, augurs, soothsayers, interpreters of dreams, priests and charlatans have made answer. And the world is as it is.

Whither?

In the turmoil of East and West what shall we do?

Matthew Arnold wrote of “‘the stream of tendency.” Can we interpret it and not be confounded? The answer, sometimes right and sometimes wrong, is expressed in public policy. The wrong answer brings loss and tragedy; the right answer marks human gain, and perhaps racial advance.

With the whole world now crowding in upon us, to decide upon a policy and pursue it is a momentous task. But the more complex the problem the greater the need to simplify our political life; to ease it of its complications; to put its economic