Liberalism and the Social Problem. Winston Churchill

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       Winston Churchill

      Liberalism and the Social Problem

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664642363

Table of Contents

       PREFACE

       INTRODUCTION

       I

       THE RECORD OF THE GOVERNMENT ToC

       THE CONCILIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA ToC

       THE TRANSVAAL CONSTITUTION ToC

       THE ORANGE FREE STATE CONSTITUTION ToC

       LIBERALISM AND SOCIALISM ToC

       IMPERIAL PREFERENCE ToC

       I

       IMPERIAL PREFERENCE ToC

       II

       THE HOUSE OF LORDS ToC

       THE DUNDEE ELECTION ToC

       II

       SOCIAL ORGANISATION ToC

       THE SECOND READING OF THE MINES [EIGHT HOURS] BILL ToC

       UNEMPLOYMENT ToC

       THE SOCIAL FIELD ToC

       THE APPROACHING CONFLICT ToC

       THE SECOND READING OF THE ANTI-SWEATING BILL [14] ToC

       LABOUR EXCHANGES AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ToC

       III

       THE BUDGET ToC

       THE BUDGET RESOLUTIONS ToC

       THE BUDGET AND NATIONAL INSURANCE ToC

       LAND AND INCOME TAXES IN THE BUDGET ToC

       THE BUDGET AND THE LORDS ToC

       THE SPIRIT OF THE BUDGET ToC

       THE BUDGET AND PROPERTY. ToC

       THE CONSTITUTIONAL MENACE ToC

PREFACE

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      These are the principal speeches I have made within the last four years. They have been chosen and collected with the idea of presenting a consistent and simultaneous view of the general field of British politics in an hour of fateful decision. I have exercised full freedom in compression and in verbal correction necessary to make them easier to read. Facts and figures have been, where necessary, revised, ephemeral matter eliminated, and epithets here and there reconsidered. But opinions and arguments are unaltered; they are hereby confirmed, and I press them earnestly and insistently upon the public.

      We approach what is not merely a party crisis but a national climacteric. Never did a great people enter upon a period of trial and choice with more sincere and disinterested desire to know the truth and to do justice in their generation. I believe they will succeed.

      Winston S. Churchill.

      33 Eccleston Square.

       October 26, 1909.

INTRODUCTION

       Table of Contents

      The series of speeches included in this volume ranges, in point of time, from the earlier months of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Government to the latest phase in the fortunes of Mr. Asquith's succeeding Ministry, and forms an argumentative defence of the basis of policy common to both Administrations. The addresses it contains deal with nearly all the great political topics of the last four years—with Free Trade, Colonial Preferences, the South African settlement, the latest and probably the final charter of trade unionism, the Miners' Bill, the measures for establishing Trade Boards and Labour Exchanges, the schemes of compulsory and voluntary assurance, and the Budget. They possess the further characteristic of describing and commending these proposals as "interdependent" parts of a large and fruitful plan of Liberal statesmanship. Of this scheme the Budget is at once the foundation and the most powerful and attractive feature. If it prospers, the social policy for which it provides prospers too. If it fails, the policy falls to the ground.

      The material of these speeches is therefore of great importance to the future of democracy in this country. Let me say a word as to their authorship. To a friendly critic they appear to present not only rare and highly trained qualities of statement and persuasion, but a unity and sincerity of thought which give them a place above mere party dialectics. Mr. Churchill's distinguished service to Liberalism has not been long in point of years, but it opened with the first speeches he ever delivered in the House of Commons. No competent observers of political activities, and of the characters and temperaments which direct them, can have doubted from the first moment of Mr. Churchill's appearance