Liberalism and the Social Problem   By: Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

LIBERALISM AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM

BY

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL M.P.

SECOND EDITION

HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON MCMIX

PREFACE

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.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE vii

INTRODUCTION xiii

I

THE RECORD OF THE GOVERNMENT

THE CONCILIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA 3

THE TRANSVAAL CONSTITUTION 16

THE ORANGE FREE STATE CONSTITUTION 45

LIBERALISM AND SOCIALISM 67

IMPERIAL PREFERENCE I. 85

IMPERIAL PREFERENCE II. 106

THE HOUSE OF LORDS 124

THE DUNDEE ELECTION 147

II

SOCIAL ORGANISATION

THE MINES [EIGHT HOURS] BILL 173

UNEMPLOYMENT 189

THE SOCIAL FIELD 211

THE APPROACHING CONFLICT 225

THE ANTI SWEATING BILL 239

LABOUR EXCHANGES AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 253

III

THE BUDGET

THE BUDGET RESOLUTIONS 277

THE BUDGET AND NATIONAL INSURANCE 297

LAND AND INCOME TAXES IN THE BUDGET 318

THE BUDGET AND THE LORDS 344

THE SPIRIT OF THE BUDGET 357

THE BUDGET AND PROPERTY 384

THE CONSTITUTIONAL MENACE 405

INTRODUCTION