IT is habitual with the Money power to lay the blame for the ruin which it causes upon the shoulders of other people . A remarkable illustration of this was afforded when the storm blowing from Paris broke over London . At that moment, as has been seen, the world was bereft of about three-quarters of its accustomed buying power because about three-quarters of its stock of gold was being hoarded . Prices of goods everywhere had fallen to exceptionally low levels, and consequently producers were going out of business, dismissing their workpeople, and ceasing to pay income tax . In these circumstances every national Budget in the world was unbalanced and every country in the world was faced with the prospect of a falling export trade .
But these facts did not deter the International Money power from declaring in loud and most threatening tones that the financial crisis in London was due in large measure to the profligate extravagance of the British Labour Government . The Government, it was stated, was allowing the country to drift into bankruptcy . It was living above its means by reason of borrowings on behalf of the Unemployment Fund . Its expenditure on the Social Services was threatening the safety of the nation .
It is eloquent testimony to the dominance over every mind which Mammon, in these days, is able to exercise that charges so evidently untrue and preposterous were admitted almost without question even by those against whom they were brought . The British Labour Cabinet stood humbly in the dock while the greedy architects of a universal ruin, posing unctuously as the Saviours of Society, overwhelmed it with abuse and contumely . His Majesty's ministers, for the most part, confessed their error and promised miserably to mend their ways . They would cut down expenditure ; they would balance the Budget ; they would live in future within their means .
This surrender naturally aroused protests on the part of the people who were destined to suffer for it . It was then made clear that the Cabinet, though apparently well persuaded of the justice of the accusations preferred against it and of the necessity of a change of policy, was afraid to offend its political supporters .
The utmost alarm was immediately manifested in the country, and this alarm quickened when it became known that the credits from France and America were exhausted and that, if new credits were not immediately obtained, "ruin" must follow . In these circumstances the tottering and demoralized Government went rapidly to pieces and was shipwrecked .
It is well that the English people should hold that dissolution in mind . The real reason why the slump began in England before it began elsewhere was the overvaluation of the pound in 1925 when this country returned to gold . The cause of the world slump itself lay far beyond the borders of this country . Yet both these catastrophes were laid at the door of the King's ministers and ascribed to a profligacy the sole object of which, in any case, was the preservation of the British people from hardship and distress .
Parliament was paying the price of its surrender a century before to the Money power . Never was spectacle more pitiable . For here was the governing authority of a people which, on a hundred battlefields, had just upheld its title to worship, hat in hand to foreign countries . Suppose these countries refused to lend any more money?
Suppose the pound "crashed" ? Would it be possible then to feed the millions in the great cities ? So befogged had every mind become by the propaganda of Money that the credit of one of the bravest, most enterprising, and most able races on earth was felt to be doubtful .
Meanwhile His Majesty the King left Balmoral and travelled back to London . Mr. MacDonald tendered his resignation, and there was joyous anticipation in financial circles of a speedy disappearance of Labour from office and of a ruthless cutting down of "doles" and Social Services . It rested with the King, however, to choose the new Prime Minister . His Majesty requested Mr. MacDonald to retain his post and to form a National Government .
That was a Royal promise to the British people and to the world that such sacrifices as might be made would be imposed equally upon all, and that the safeguards of the weak and the poor would not be diminished . It is certain that, in the future, men will see in this choice of the leader of the Labour party to be the leader of the nation an act of Kingship of decisive importance . When all fainted, the King remained trustful of the courage, the self-sacrifice, and the high patriotism of his people . When all were disposed to yield to the bullyings and threatenings of the Money power, and make an end of everything to which that power took exception, the King chose the man who, as leader of the fallen Government, had been most bitterly attacked by Money .
It is well to set that kingly gesture against the blustering pusillanimity of Money . A ruined world and a universal panic bore witness to Money's rule . The ugly god sat, livid with fear, on his throne, screeching that all must be delivered to destruction so that "credit" might be restored . Only a King had dared to ignore these bellowings . In the hour of destiny the Pretender was made manifest ; he who possessed the King-thought, which is the Grace of God, came to the rescue of his people .