The Crittenden Automotive Library

MACDONALD'S MOTOR CAR.

Publication: The New York Times
Date: 16 September 1924

A part of the Conservative press has been making great play with the trust fund placed at the British Prime Minister's disposal by a boyhood friend for the maintenance of an automobile which Mr. MacDonald could not otherwise afford. It is doubtful, however, if his political opponents really believe that they have caught him in a misdemeanor. The opportunity to poke fun at a Socialist Prime Minister was not to be resisted. Probably the only loss of prestige that threatens MacDonald is from the side of his own ultra-Reds, who may discern in this motor car the first sign of the subornation of Labor's leader by the “possessing classes.” The motive behind the gift was undoubtedly as the Prime Minister and the donor have described it: to relieve Mr. MacDonald, who is not in the best of health, of part of the physical wear and tear to which he is subjected. Even if the purpose went beyond a mere automobile to guaranteeing Mr. MacDonald against financial harrassments in general, there is no harm done. His recent services to the cause of European peace are easily worth the price of the best motor car on the market. If Mr. MacDonald were in the business of trading baronetcies for limousines this particular affair could have been much more deftly handled.

It will be noted that both the principals in the Adventure of the Automobile, as Conan Doyle might have called it, are Scotsmen. Their nation is reputed to be fond of money, but it is even fonder of brains and of seeing brains get on in the world. A Scotsman named Andrew Carnegie did more to endow intellectual service than any other man in history, not excluding the most magnificent of the Medicis. It is infinitely to the credit of the Scotch people that they have no false shame either about offering money to smooth the path of merit and industry, or about accepting money. The theme of the opening scene in Barrie's “What Every Woman Knows” mortifies no one therein concerned.

The incident reflects a situation with which we are familiar in this country. Repeatedly we witness exceptional talent withdrawing from the service of the community because of a man's duty to his family. At the present moment the machinery of conscription has been set in motion against one Alfred Smith, who pleads that he is being impoverished by the Governorship of the Empire State. Franklin K. Lane retired from public life because he would not go on living on debts. Herbert Asquith left the office of Prime Minister poorer than he went in. In every country there are able public servants who are financed by their friends; that is to say, who borrow from their friends. The right to underpay a good servant is one of the most jealously guarded prerogatives of democracy.