A Question o' Scots

At the London Scots Labor Club, ex-Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald commented upon the extraordinary fact that there was not a Scot in the present Cabinet. But he consoled himself and his audience by stating that Premier Stanley Baldwin was half a Scot,* adding, however: "I doubt whether half a Scotsman is good enough to maintain the great burdens of governing this country." (Applause.) All the jokes at the expense of Scotsmen, he alleged, were invented by Scotsmen. "I once employed a parliamentary secretary," he related, "not for the purpose of giving me good advice in politics--because I get enough of that and to spare without any appointments--but for the purpose of supplying me with two original jokes against Scotsmen every day of the week. He did it, and that is the reason why the Labor Government was so successful." At that moment, an Englishman, who somehow or other had lost his bearings, remarked: "It must have been a lugubrious job." (Loud laughter.)

* The mother of Mr. Baldwin was one of the daughters of the late Rev. George B. MacDonald--not related to ex-Premier MacDonald.