Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/110

 such as tariffs and commercial treaties, cannot be removed from Government control. But, it was urged, the Commons Committee need not have determinate control; it need only be a source of information for the House and the country. But here, too, there were objections on the ground that necessary diplomacy would be damaged if each step were made public to the House of Commons. Some secrecy was necessary though it should not be carried so far as our engagements with France before the War. Strong views upon this subject, pro and con, held by several of our members, prevented the development and application of the very principle that was our raison d’être. This did not, however, sterilize our activities, it simply drove them into agitation against conscription and in favour of measures for an early peace. But more might have been accomplished, had it not been for the distrust and antipathy which soon appeared between Morel and Ramsay MacDonald. Morel’s audacious flaming oratory and a certain recklessness of consequences repelled the cautious and calculating nature of MacDonald. An atmosphere of conflict thus impaired the unity of the Committee. One of our members rudely described the situation in the language of Oliver Wendell Holmes as that of “two prize bulls in one three-acre lot.” For at that time MacDonald had a dominating personality, and showed a certain jealousy of the masterfulness to which Morel also inclined. There were no open ructions, but after the