It is a long time since we have had a by-election to show us the trend of political opinion in the constituencies; and now that East Bradford has spoken it is rather difficult to interpret its. utterance. Only one thing is plain, and that is that in this as in many other constituencies the Independent Labour Party hold the balance of power. If they had tried to exact pledges from one or other of the party achieved something 5 but they put candidates, they might possibly have a candidate of their own, Mr. Keir Hardie, and of course he was at the bottom of the poll. In the result the Conservative candidate, the Hon. Captain Greville, was returned by 395 votes against _a Conservative majority of 704 last year. The Liberals of course, claim that ut for the triangular duel, in which Mr. Keir Hardie carried off nearly two thousand votes, they would have gained the election and two votes in the House. But even if this be true the fact cannot be much consolation to them. It only means that the Independent Labour Party is carrying off their supporters. The I. L. P. cannot succeed in returning its candidates to Parliament, but it can play uch havoc with the chances of Radical candidates that before long the Radical party may be glad to come terms with them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.