SHORTHAND MANUSCRIPT DRAFT OF "ELECTION PROSPECTS." by Shaw, George Bernard - 1949

[ Np], 1949. 3 2/3 pages, in ink, on versos of printed quarto sheets (reuse of printed statements of terms for performances of Shaw's plays). With two typed onlays, one bearing substantive deletions and insertions in Shaw's hand. Accompanied by an early (contemporary?) typed transcription, 2 1/3 pp., quarto. Some isolated marginal paperclip rust stains affecting each leaf, old mend to verso of 1 1/2" clean tear in final leaf of manuscript, typist's vertical completion rule in pencil through middle of each leaf of the manuscript, but generally very good. A fine example of Shaw's characteristic shorthand, and vintage (though somewhat diffuse) political Shaw in terms of content, possibly the basis for the essay, "Election Prospects as I See Them," published in the DAILY MAIL, 5 November 1949. In it, Shaw comments on the significance of Soviet Communism in the post-war years: "Mr. Churchill, who, to his great credit, was the first to recognize the eminence of Lenin, might well now warn our politicians of all parties, who seldom speak without naming Stalin, and never without insulting him, that Stalin is neither a would-be Napoleon nor a Hitleresque 'bloodthirsty guttersnipe,' but the mainstay of peace in Europe. None of your Statesmen seemed to have observed that ... civilization, from its beginning ... is founded on a broad basis of Communism ... They have not even read their Bibles (if they have any) far enough to know that Christianity began with a communism so stark that Saint Peter struck a man and his wife for holding back a few coins from the common stock for themselves ...." He expounds on the "slavery of Necessity," and the importance of leisure: "...the distribution of leisure is as important and as primary in the duty of the state as the distribution of income ...," and suggests the "final ruin of the Commonwealth" might be the consequence of the confrontation of the "small and miserably idle rich" with the "large and miserable overworked poor ...." LAURENCE C3879.