nottingham, january 30, 1909
(from the manchester guardian, by permission of the editor.)
we are met together at a time when great exertions and a high constancy are required from all who cherish and sustain the liberal cause. difficulties surround us and dangers threaten from this side and from that. you know the position which has been created by the action of the house of lords. two great political parties divide all england between them in their conflicts. now it is discovered that one of these parties possesses an unfair weapon—that one of these parties, after it is beaten at an election, after it is deprived of the support and confidence of the country, after it is destitute of a majority in the representative assembly, when it sits in the shades of opposition without responsibility, or representative authority, under the frown, so to speak, of the constitution, nevertheless possesses a [226]weapon, an instrument, a tool, a utensil—call it what you will—with which it can harass, vex, impede, affront, humiliate, and finally destroy the most serious labours of the other. when it is realised that the party which possesses this prodigious and unfair advantage is in the main the party of the rich against the poor, of the classes and their dependants against the masses, of the lucky, the wealthy, the happy, and the strong against the left-out and the shut-out millions of the weak and poor, you will see how serious the constitutional situation has become.
a period of supreme effort lies before you. the election with which this parliament will close, and towards which we are moving, is one which is different in notable features from any other which we have known. looking back over the politics of the last thirty years, we hardly ever see a conservative opposition approaching an election without a programme, on paper at any rate, of social and democratic reform. there was lord beaconsfield with his policy of "health and the laws of health." there was the tory democracy of lord randolph churchill in 1885 and 1886, with large, far-reaching plans of liberal and democratic [227]reform, of a generous policy to ireland, of retrenchment and reduction of expenditure upon naval and military armaments—all promises to the people, and for the sake of which he resigned rather than play them false. then you have the elections of 1892 and 1895. in each the conservative party, whether in office or opposition, was, under the powerful influence of mr. chamberlain, committed to most extensive social programmes, of what we should call liberal and radical reforms, like the workmen's compensation act and old-age pensions, part of which were carried out by them and part by others.
but what social legislation, what plans of reform do the conservative party offer now to the working people of england if they will return them to power? i have studied very carefully the speeches of their leaders—if you can call them leaders—and i have failed to discover a single plan of social reform or reconstruction. upon the grim and sombre problems of the poor law they have no policy whatever. upon unemployment no policy whatever; for the evils of intemperance no policy whatever, except to make sure of the public-house vote; upon the question of the land, monopolised as it is in [228]the hands of so few, denied to so many, no policy whatever; for the distresses of ireland, for the relations between the irish and british peoples, no policy whatever unless it be coercion. in other directions where they have a policy, it is worse than no policy. for scotland the lords' veto, for wales a church repugnant to the conscience of the overwhelming majority of the welsh people, crammed down their throats at their own expense.
yet we are told they are confident of victory, they are persuaded that the country has already forgotten the follies and even the crimes of the late administration, and that the general contempt and disgust in which they were dismissed from power has already passed away. they are already busy making their cabinet, who is to be put in and, what is not less important, who is to be put out. lists of selection and lists of proscription are being framed. the two factions into which they are divided, the balfourites and the tariff reformers, are each acutely conscious of one another's infirmities, and, through their respective organs, they have succeeded in proving to their apparent satisfaction what most of us have known, and some of us have said for [229]a long time past, that they are an uncommonly poor lot all round.
it would be bad enough if a party so destitute, according to its own statement, of political merit were to return with the intention of doing nothing but repeating and renewing our experiences under mr. balfour's late administration, of dragging through empty sessions, of sneering at every philanthropic enthusiasm, of flinging a sop from time to time to the brewers or the parsons or the landed classes. but those would not be the consequences which would follow from the tory triumph. consequences far more grave, immeasurably more disastrous, would follow. we are not offered an alternative policy of progress, we are not confronted even with a policy of standstill, we are confronted with an organised policy of constructive reaction. we are to march back into those shades from which we had hoped british civilisation and british science had finally emerged.
if the conservative party win the election they have made it perfectly clear that it is their intention to impose a complete protective tariff, and to raise the money for ambitious armaments and colonial projects [230]by taxing the poor. they have declared, with a frankness which is, at any rate, remarkable, that they will immediately proceed to put a tax on bread, a tax on meat, a tax on timber, and an innumerable schedule of taxes on all manufactured articles imported into the united kingdom; that is to say, that they will take by all these taxes a large sum of money from the pockets of the wage-earners, by making them pay more for the food they eat, the houses they live in, and the comforts and conveniences which they require in their homes, and that a great part of this large sum of money will be divided between the landlords and the manufacturers in the shape of increased profits; and even that part of it which does reach the exchequer is to be given back to these same classes in the shape of reductions in income-tax and in direct taxation. if you face the policy with which we are now threatened by the conservative party fairly and searchingly, you will see that it is nothing less than a deliberate attempt on the part of important sections of the propertied classes to transfer their existing burdens to the shoulders of the masses of the people, and to gain greater profits for the [231]investment of their capital by charging higher prices.
it is very natural that a party nourishing such designs should be apprehensive of criticism and of opposition; but i must say i have never heard of a party which was in such a jumpy, nervous state as our opponents are at this present time. if one is led in the course of a speech, as i sometimes am, to speak a little firmly and bluntly about the conservative tariff reformers, they become almost speechless with indignation. they are always in a state of incipient political apoplexy, while as for the so-called liberal unionists, whenever they are criticised, they never leave off whining and say that it is unchivalrous to attack them while mr. chamberlain is disabled. sorry i am that he is out of the battle, not only on personal, but on public grounds. his fiercest opponents would welcome his re-entry into the political arena, if only for the fact that we should then have a man to deal with, and some one whose statement of the case for his side would be clear and bold, whose speeches would be worth reading and worth answering, instead of the melancholy marionettes whom the wire-pullers of the tariff reform league are [232]accustomed to exhibit on provincial platforms. but i hope you will not let these pretexts or complaints move you or prevent you from calling a spade a spade, a tax a tax, a protective tariff a gigantic dodge to cheat the poor, or the liberal unionist party the most illiberal thing on record.
but if the tariff reformers are so touchy and intolerant that they resent the slightest attack or criticism from their opponents as if it were sacrilege, that is nothing to the fury which they exhibit when any of their friends on the conservative side begin to ask a few questions. one would have thought at least that matters of such gravity and such novelty should be considered fairly on their merits. but what does mr. austen chamberlain say? he tells us that no hesitation will be tolerated from unionist members of parliament in regard to any tariff reform proposals which may in a future parliament be submitted—by whoever may be the chancellor of the exchequer. no hesitation will be tolerated. not opposition, not criticism, not dissent, but no hesitation will be tolerated. the members of the unionist party are to go to the next parliament, not as honest gentlemen, free to use their minds [233]and intelligences. they are to go as the pledged, tied-up delegates of a caucus, forced to swallow without hesitation details of a tariff which they have not even seen; denied the right which every self-respecting man should claim, to give their vote on grand and cardinal issues according to their faith and their conscience. and in order that those who would refuse to be bound by these dishonouring conditions may be smelt out and excluded from the house of commons, a secret society of nameless but probably interested busybodies is hard at work in all the dirtiest sewers of political intrigue.
but, after all, these methods are an inseparable part of the process of carrying a protectionist tariff. the whole question resolves itself into a matter of "business is business," and the predatory interests which have banded themselves together to finance and organise the tariff campaign cannot be expected to put up with the conscientious scruples and reasonable hesitations of members of parliament. it will be a cash transaction throughout, with large profits and quick delivery. every little would-be monopolist in the country is going to have his own association to run his own particular [234]trade. every constituency will be forced to join in the scramble, and to secure special favours at the expense of the commonwealth for its special branches of industry. all the elections of the future will turn on tariffs. why, you can see the thing beginning already. that egregious tariff commission have been dividing all the loot among themselves before the battle has been won—dividing the lion's skin while the beast lives—and i was reading only the other day that the conservatives of norwood have decided that they could not support their member any longer, because, forsooth, he would not pledge himself to vote for a special tax on foreign imported chairs and window panes. it is the same in every country.
such is the great conspiracy with which the british democracy is now confronted—an attempt to place the main burden of taxation upon the shoulders of wage-earners and not on income-drawers, a disastrous blow at the prosperity, the freedom, the flexibility, and the expansive power of british industry, and a deadly injury to the purity of english public life. the conservative party tell us that if they win the victory they will screw a protective tariff on our necks. what do we say? what of [235]the house of lords? we say that if we win, we will smash to pieces the veto of the house of lords. if we should obtain a majority at the next election—and i have good hopes that if we act with wisdom and with union, and, above all, with courage, we shall undoubtedly obtain an effective majority—the prize we shall claim will be a final change in the relations of the two houses of parliament, of such a character as to enable the house of commons to make its will supreme within the lifetime of a single parliament; and except upon that basis, or for the express purpose of effecting that change, we will not accept any responsibility for the conduct of affairs.
but there is another issue which must not be overlooked. i mean the social issue. we have taken a great step already. i must say that he is rather a sour kind of man who can find nothing to notice in the old-age pensions act except its little flaws and petty defects. i think you will feel, on the contrary, that the establishment of the pensions system is a marvellous and impressive example of the power which british governments possess. without a hitch, perfectly smoothly, punctual to the minute, [236]regular as clockwork, nearly 600,000 aged persons are being paid their pensions every week. that is a wonderful and beneficent achievement, a good job well worth some risk and sweat to finish. nearly eight millions of money are being sent circulating through unusual channels, long frozen by poverty, circulating in the homes of the poor, flowing through the little shops which cater to their needs, cementing again family unions which harsh fate was tearing asunder, uniting the wife to the husband, and the parent to the children. no; in spite of socialistic sneer and tory jeer and glorious beer, and all the rest of it, i say it is a noble and inspiring event, for which this parliament will be justly honoured by generations unborn. i said just now that a tory tariff victory meant marching backwards, but there are some things they cannot undo. we may be driven from power. we may desire to be released from responsibility. much of our work may be cut short, much may be overturned. but there are some things which tory reaction will not dare to touch, and, like the settlement and reconciliation of south africa, so the old-age pensions act will live and grow and ripen as the years roll by, far beyond the [237]reach of party warfare and far above the changing moods of faction.
there are many political injustices in this country and many absurd, oppressive, or obsolete practices. but the main aspirations of the british people are at this present time social rather than political. they see around them on every side, and almost every day, spectacles of confusion and misery which they cannot reconcile with any conception of humanity or justice. they see that there are in the modern state a score of misfortunes that can happen to a man without his being in fault in any way, and without his being able to guard against them in any way. they see, on the other hand, the mighty power of science, backed by wealth and power, to introduce order, to provide safeguards, to prevent accidents, or at least to mitigate their consequences. they know that this country is the richest in the world; and in my sincere judgment the british democracy will not give their hearts to any party that is not able and willing to set up that larger, fuller, more elaborate, more thorough social organisation, without which our country and its people will inevitably sink through sorrow to disaster and our name and fame fade upon the pages of history.
[238]we have done some of that work, and we are going to do more. in moving forward to this great struggle which is approaching, we are going to carry our social policy along with us. we are not going to fight alone upon the political and constitutional issue, nor alone upon the defence of free trade. we are going, fearless of the consequences, confident of our faith, to place before the nation a wide, comprehensive, interdependent scheme of social organisation—to place it before the people not merely in the speeches or placards of a party programme, but by a massive series of legislative proposals and administrative acts. if we are interrupted or impeded in our march, the nation will know how to deal with those who stand in the path of vital and necessary reforms. and i am confident that in the day of battle the victory will be to the earnest and to the persevering; and then again will be heard the doleful wail of tory rout and ruin, and the loud and resounding acclamations with which the triumphant armies of democracy will march once again into the central place of power.
