initial commit of ebook 15681HEADmain

9 files changed, 6788 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/15681-8.txt b/15681-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43eae5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15681-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2195 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Constructive Imperialism, by Viscount Milner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Constructive Imperialism
+
+Author: Viscount Milner
+
+Release Date: April 22, 2005 [EBook #15681]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSTRUCTIVE IMPERIALISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading (https://www.pgdp.net).
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Two advertisements from the beginning of the book
+have been moved to the end.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+      CONSTRUCTIVE
+      IMPERIALISM
+
+      BY
+
+      VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.
+
+      FIVE SPEECHES
+
+      DELIVERED AT
+      TUNBRIDGE WELLS (OCTOBER 24, 1907)
+      GUILDFORD (OCTOBER 29, 1907)
+      EDINBURGH (NOVEMBER 15, 1907)
+      RUGBY (NOVEMBER 19, 1907)
+      AND OXFORD (DECEMBER 5, 1907)
+
+
+      LONDON
+      THE NATIONAL REVIEW OFFICE
+      23 RYDER STREET, ST. JAMES'S
+      1908
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                        PAGE
+
+TARIFF REFORM (TUNBRIDGE WELLS)                            7
+
+A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY (GUILDFORD)                         34
+
+UNIONISTS AND THE EMPIRE (EDINBURGH)                      50
+
+UNIONISTS AND SOCIAL REFORM (RUGBY)                       69
+
+SWEATED INDUSTRIES (OXFORD)                               88
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TARIFF REFORM
+
+Tunbridge Wells, October 24, 1907
+
+
+As this is a Tariff Reform meeting pure and simple, I am anxious not
+to approach the subject in any party spirit or in any spirit of
+acrimonious controversy. The question is a difficult and complicated
+one, and though I am a strong Tariff Reformer myself I hope I am not
+incapable of seeing both sides of the case. I certainly should have
+reason to be ashamed if I could not be fair to those whom, for the
+sake of brevity and convenience, I will call Free Traders, though I do
+not altogether admit the correctness of that designation. My views
+were once the same as theirs, and though I long ago felt constrained
+to modify them, and had become a Tariff Reformer some years before the
+subject attained its present prominence in public discussion, it would
+ill become me to treat as foolish arguments which I once found so
+convincing or to vilify opinions which I once honestly shared.
+
+What has happened to me is what I expect has happened to a good many
+people. I still admire the great Free Trade writers, the force of
+their intellect, the lucidity of their arguments. There can be no
+clearer proof of the spell which they exercised over the minds of
+their countrymen than the fact that so many leading public men on both
+sides of politics remain their disciples to this very day. But for my
+own part I have been unable to resist the evidence of facts which
+shows me clearly that in the actual world of trade and industry things
+do not work out even approximately as they ought to work out if the
+Free Trade theory were the counsel of perfection which I once thought
+it. And that has led me to question the theory itself, and so
+questioned it now seems to me far from a correct statement of the
+truth, even from the point of view of abstract inquiry. But I am not
+here to engage in abstract arguments. What I want to do is to look at
+the question from a strictly practical point of view, but at the same
+time a very broad one. I am anxious to bring home to you the place of
+Tariff Reform in a sound national policy, for, indeed, it seems to me
+very difficult to construct such a policy without a complete revision
+of our fiscal arrangements. Now a sound national policy has two
+aspects. There are two great objects of practical patriotism, two
+heads under which you may sum it up, much as the Church Catechism sums
+up practical religion, under the heads of "duty to God" and "duty to
+your neighbour." These objects are the strength of the Empire, and the
+health, the well-being, the contentedness of the mass of the people,
+resting as they always must on steady, properly organised, and fairly
+remunerated labour. Remember always, these two things are one; they
+are inseparable. There can be no adequate prosperity for the forty or
+fifty million people in these islands without the Empire and all that
+it provides; there can be no enduring Empire without a healthy,
+thriving, manly people at the centre. Stunted, overcrowded town
+populations, irregular employment, sweated industries, these things
+are as detestable to true Imperialism as they are to philanthropy,
+and they are detestable to the Tariff Reformer. His aim is to improve
+the condition of the people at home, and to improve it concurrently
+with strengthening the foundations of the Empire. Mind you, I do not
+say that Tariff Reform alone is going to do all this. I make no such
+preposterous claim for it. What I do say is that it fits in better
+alike with a policy of social reform at home and with a policy
+directed to the consolidation of the Empire than our existing fiscal
+system does.
+
+Now, what is the essential difference between Tariff Reformers and the
+advocates of the present system? I must dwell on this even at the risk
+of appearing tiresome, because there is so much misunderstanding on
+the subject. In the eyes of the advocates of the present system, the
+statesman, or at any rate the British statesman, when he approaches
+fiscal policy, is confronted with the choice of Hercules. He is
+placed, like the rider in the old legend, between the black and the
+white horseman. On the one hand is an angel of light called Free
+Trade; on the other a limb of Satan called Protection. The one is
+entirely and always right; the other is entirely and always wrong.
+All fiscal wisdom is summed up in clinging desperately to the one and
+eschewing like sin anything that has the slightest flavour of the
+other. Now, that view has certainly the merit of simplicity, and
+simplicity is a very great thing; but, if we look at history, it does
+not seem quite to bear out this simple view. This country became one
+of the greatest and wealthiest in the world under a system of rigid
+Protection. It has enjoyed great, though by no means unbroken,
+prosperity under Free Trade. Side by side with that system of ours
+other countries have prospered even more under quite different
+systems. These facts alone are sufficient to justify the critical
+spirit, which is the spirit of the Tariff Reformer. He does not
+believe in any absolute right or wrong in such a matter as the
+imposition of duties upon imports. Such duties cannot, he thinks, be
+judged by one single test, namely, whether they do or do not favour
+the home producer, and be condemned out of hand if they do favour him.
+
+The Tariff Reformer rejects this single cast-iron principle. He
+refuses to bow down before it, regardless of changing circumstances,
+regardless of the policy of other countries and of that of the other
+Dominions of the Crown. He wants a free hand in dealing with imports,
+the power to adapt the fiscal policy of this country to the varying
+conditions of trade and to the situation created at any given time by
+the fiscal action of others. He has no superstitious objection to
+using duties either to increase employment at home or to secure
+markets abroad. But on the other hand he does not go blindly for
+duties upon foreign imports as so-called Free Traders go blindly
+against them, except in the case of articles not produced in this
+country, some of which the Free Traders are obliged to tax
+preposterously. Tariff Reform is not one-ideaed, rigid, inelastic, as
+our existing system is. Many people are afraid of it, because they
+think Tariff Reformers want to put duties on foreign goods for the fun
+of the thing, merely for the sake of making them dearer. Certainly
+Tariff Reformers do not think that cheapness is everything. Certainly
+they hold that the blind worship of immediate cheapness may cost the
+nation dear in the long run. But, unless cheapness is due to some
+mischievous cause, they are just as anxious that we should buy cheaply
+as the most ardent Cobdenite, and especially that we should buy
+cheaply what we cannot produce ourselves. Talking of cheapness,
+however, I must make a confession which I hope will not be
+misunderstood by ladies present who are fond of shopping--I wish we
+could get out of the way of discussing national economics so much from
+the shopping point of view. Surely what matters, from the point of
+view of the general well-being, is the productive capacity of the
+people, and the actual amount of their production of articles of
+necessity, use, or beauty. Everything we consume might be cheaper, and
+yet if the total amount of things which were ours to consume was less
+we should be not richer but poorer. It is, I think, one of the first
+duties of Tariff Reformers to keep people's eyes fixed upon this vital
+point--the amount of our national production. It is that which
+constitutes the real income of the nation, on which wages and profits
+alike depend.
+
+And that brings me to another point. Production in this country is
+dependent on importation, more dependent than in most countries. We
+are not self-supplying. We must import from outside these islands vast
+quantities of raw materials and of the necessaries of life. That, at
+least, is common ground between the Free Trader and the Tariff
+Reformer. But the lessons they draw from the fact are somewhat
+different. The Free Trader is only anxious that we should buy all
+these necessary imports as cheaply as possible. The Tariff Reformer is
+also anxious that we should buy them cheaply, but he is even more
+anxious to know how we are going to pay for all this vast quantity of
+things which we are bound to import. And that leads him to two
+conclusions. The first is that, seeing how much we are obliged to buy
+from abroad in any case, he looks rather askance at our increasing our
+indebtedness by buying things which we could quite easily produce at
+home, especially with so many unemployed and half-employed people. The
+other, and this is even a more pressing solicitude to him, is that it
+is of vital importance to us to look after our external markets, to
+make sure that we shall always have customers, and good customers, to
+buy our goods, and so to enable us to pay for our indispensable
+imports. The Free Trader does not share this solicitude. He has got a
+comfortable theory that if you only look after your imports your
+exports will look after themselves. Will they? The Tariff Reformer
+does not agree with that at all. Imports no doubt are paid for by
+exports, but it does not in the least follow that by increasing your
+dependence on others you will necessarily increase their dependence on
+you. It would be much truer to say: "Look after the exports and the
+imports will look after themselves." The more you sell the more you
+will be able to buy, but it does not in the least follow that the more
+you buy the more you will be able to sell. What business man would go
+on the principle of buying as much as possible and say: "Oh, that is
+all right. I am sure to be able to sell enough to pay for it." The
+first thought of a wise business man is for his markets, and you as a
+great trading nation are bound to think of your markets, not only your
+markets of to-day but of to-morrow and the day after to-morrow.
+
+The Free Trade theory was the birth of a time when our imports were
+practically all supplemental to our exports, all indispensable to us,
+and when, on the other hand, the whole of the world was in need of our
+goods, far beyond our power of supplying it. Since then the situation
+has wholly altered. At this actual moment, it is true, there is
+temporarily a state of things which in one respect reproduces the
+situation of fifty years ago. There is for the moment an almost
+unlimited demand for some of our goods abroad. But that is not the
+normal situation. The normal situation is that there is an increasing
+invasion of our markets by goods from abroad which we used to produce
+ourselves, and an increasing tendency to exclude our goods from
+foreign markets. The Tariff Reform movement is the inevitable result
+of these altered circumstances. There is nothing artificial about it.
+It is not, as some people think, the work of a single man, however
+much it may owe to his genius and his courage, however much it may
+suffer, with other good causes, through his enforced retirement from
+the field. It is not an eccentric idea of Mr. Chamberlain's. Sooner or
+later it was bound to come in any case. It is the common sense and
+experience of the people waking up to the altered state of affairs,
+beginning to shake itself free from a theory which no longer fits the
+facts. It is a movement of emancipation, a twofold struggle for
+freedom--in the sphere of economic theory, for freedom of thought, in
+the sphere of fiscal policy, for freedom of action.
+
+And that freedom of action is needed quickly. It is needed now. I am
+not doubtful of the ultimate triumph of Tariff Reform. Sooner or
+later, I believe, it is sure to achieve general recognition. What does
+distress me is the thought of the opportunities we are losing in the
+meantime. This year has been marked, disastrously marked, in our
+annals by the emphatic and deliberate rejection on the part of our
+Government of the great principle of Preferential Trade within the
+Empire. All the other self-governing States are in favour of it. The
+United Kingdom alone blocks the way. What does that mean? What is it
+that we risk losing as long as we refuse to accept the principle of
+Preferential Trade, and will certainly lose in the long run if we
+persist in that refusal? It is a position of permanent and assured
+advantage in some of the greatest and most growing markets in the
+world. Preference to British goods in the British dominions beyond the
+sea would be a constant and potent influence tending to induce the
+people of those countries to buy what they require to buy outside
+their own borders from us rather than from our rivals. It means beyond
+all doubt and question so much more work for British hands. And the
+people of those countries are anxious that British hands should get
+it. They have, if I may so express myself, a family feeling, which
+makes them wish to keep the business within the family. But business
+is business. They are willing to give us the first chance. But if we
+will give nothing in return, if we tell them to mind their own
+business and not to bother us with offers of mutual concessions, it is
+only a question of time, and the same chance will be given to others,
+who will not refuse to avail themselves of it.
+
+You see the beginning of the process already in such an event as the
+newly-concluded commercial treaty between Canada and France. If we
+choose, it is still possible for us not only to secure the preference
+we have in Colonial markets, but to increase it. But if we do nothing,
+commercial arrangements with other nations who are more far-sighted
+will gradually whittle that preference away. To my mind the action of
+Canada in the matter of that treaty, perfectly legitimate and natural
+though it be, is much more ominous and full of warning to us than the
+new Australian Tariff, about which such an unjustifiable outcry has
+been made. Rates of duty can be lowered as easily as they can be
+raised, but the principle of preference once abandoned would be very
+difficult to revive. I am sorry that the Australians have found it
+necessary in their own interests to raise their duties, but I would
+rather see any of the British Dominions raise its duties and still
+give a preference to British goods than lower its duties and take away
+that preference. Whatever duties may be imposed by Canada, Australia,
+or the other British Dominions, they will still remain great
+importers, and with the vast expansion in front of them their imports
+are bound to increase. They will still be excellent customers, and the
+point is that they should be our customers.
+
+In the case of Australia the actual extent of the preference accorded
+to British goods under the new tariff is not, as has been represented,
+of small value to us. It is of considerable value. But what is of far
+more importance is the fact that Australia continues to adhere to the
+principle of Preference. Moreover, Australia, following the example of
+Canada, has established an extensive free list for the benefit of this
+country. Let nobody say after this that Australia shows no family
+feeling. I for one am grateful to Australia, and I am grateful to that
+great Australian statesman, Mr. Deakin, for the way in which, in the
+teeth of discouragement from us, he has still persisted in making the
+principle of preferential trade within the Empire an essential feature
+of the Australian Tariff.
+
+Preference is vital to the future growth of British trade, but it is
+not only trade which is affected by it. The idea which lies at the
+root of it is that the scattered communities, which all own
+allegiance to the British Crown, should regard and treat one another
+not as strangers but as kinsmen, that, while each thinks first of its
+own interests, it should think next of the interests of the family,
+and of the rest of the world only after the family. That idea is the
+very corner-stone of Imperial unity. To my mind any weakening of that
+idea, any practical departure from it, would be an incalculable loss
+to all of us. I should regard a readjustment of our own Customs duties
+with the object of maintaining that idea, even if such readjustment
+were of some immediate expense to ourselves, as I hope to show you
+that it would not be, as a most trifling and inconsiderable price to
+pay for a prize of infinite value. I am the last man to contend that
+preferential trade alone is a sufficient bond of Empire. But I do
+contend that the maintenance or creation of other bonds becomes very
+difficult, if in the vitally important sphere of commerce we are to
+make no distinction between our fellow-citizens across the seas and
+foreigners. Closer trade relations involve closer relations in all
+other respects. An advantage, even a slight advantage, to Colonial
+imports in the great British market would tend to the development of
+the Colonies as compared with the foreign nations who compete with
+them. But the development of the British communities across the seas
+is of more value to us than an equivalent development of foreign
+countries. It is of more value to our trade, for, if there is one
+thing absolutely indisputable, it is that these communities buy ever
+so much more of us per head than foreign nations do. But it is not
+only a question of trade; it is a question of the future of our
+people. By encouraging the development of the British Dominions beyond
+the seas we direct emigration to them in preference to foreign lands.
+We keep our people under the flag instead of scattering them all over
+the world. We multiply not merely our best customers but our fellow
+citizens, our only sure and constant friends.
+
+And now is there nothing we can do to help forward this great object?
+Is it really the case, as the Free Traders contend, that in order to
+meet the advances of the other British States and to give, as the
+saying is, Preference for Preference, we should be obliged to make
+excessive sacrifices, and to place intolerable burdens on the people
+of this country? I believe that this is an absolute delusion. I
+believe that, if only we could shake off the fetters of a narrow and
+pedantic theory, and freely reshape our own system of import duties on
+principles of obvious common sense, we should be able at one and the
+same time to promote trade within the Empire, to strengthen our hands
+in commercial negotiations with foreign countries, and to render tardy
+justice to our home industries.
+
+The Free Trader goes on the principle of placing duties on a very few
+articles only, articles, generally, of universal consumption, and of
+making those duties very high ones. Moreover, with the exception of
+alcohol, these articles are all things which we cannot produce
+ourselves. I do not say that the system has not some merits. It is
+easy to work, and the cost of collection is moderate. But it has also
+great defects. The system is inelastic, for the duties being so few
+and so heavy it is difficult to raise them in case of emergency
+without checking consumption. Moreover, the burden of the duties
+falls entirely on the people of this country, for the foreign
+importer, except in the case of alcoholic liquors, has no home
+producer to compete with, and so he simply adds the whole of the duty
+to the price of the article. Last, but not least, the burden is
+inequitably distributed. It would be infinitely fairer, as between
+different classes of consumers, to put a moderate duty on a large
+number of articles than to put an enormous duty on two or three. But
+from that fairer and more reasonable system we are at present debarred
+by our pedantic adhesion to the rule that no duty may be put on
+imported articles unless an equivalent duty is put on articles of the
+same kind produced at home. Why, you may well ask, should we be bound
+by any such rule? I will tell you. It is because, unless we imposed
+such an equivalent duty, we should be favouring the British producer,
+and because under our present system every other consideration has got
+to give way to this supreme law, the "categorical imperative" of the
+Free Trader, that we must not do anything which could by any
+possibility in the remotest degree benefit the British producer in
+his competition with the foreigner in our home market. It is from the
+obsession of this doctrine that the Tariff Reformer wishes to liberate
+our fiscal policy. He approaches this question free from any doctrinal
+prepossessions whatever. Granted that a certain number of millions
+have to be raised by Customs duties, he sees before him some five to
+six hundred millions of foreign imports on which to raise them, and so
+his first and very natural reflection is, that by distributing duties
+pretty equally over this vast mass of imported commodities he could
+raise a very large revenue without greatly enhancing the price of
+anything. Our present system throws away, so to speak, the advantage
+of our vast and varied importation by electing to place the burden of
+duties entirely on very few articles. As against this system the
+Tariff Reformer favours the principle of a widespread tariff, of
+making all foreign imports pay, but pay moderately, and he holds that
+it is no more than justice to the British producer that all articles
+brought to the British market should contribute to the cost of
+keeping it up. It is no answer to say that it is the British consumer
+who would pay the duty, for even if this were invariably true, which
+it is not, it leaves unaffected the question of fair play between the
+British producer and the foreign producer. The price of the home-made
+article is enhanced by the taxes which fall upon the home makers, and
+which are largely devoted to keeping up our great open market, but the
+price of the foreign article is not so enhanced, though it has the
+full benefit of the open market all the same. Moreover, the price of
+the home-made article is also enhanced by the many restrictions which
+we place, and rightly place, on home manufacture in the interests of
+the workers--restrictions as to hours, methods of working, sanitary
+conditions, and so forth--all excellent, all laudable, but expensive,
+and from which the foreign maker is often absolutely, and always
+comparatively, free. The Tariff Reformer is all for the open market,
+but he is for fair play as between those who compete in it, and he
+holds that even cheapness ought not to be sought at the expense of
+unfairness to the British producer.
+
+I say, then, that the Tariff Reformer starts with the idea of a
+moderate all-round tariff. But he is not going to ride his principle
+to death. He is essentially practical. There are some existing duties,
+like those on alcoholic liquors, the high rate of which is justified
+for other than fiscal reasons. He sees no reason to lower these
+duties. On the other hand, there are some articles, such as raw
+cotton, which compete with no British produce, and even a slight
+enhancement of the price of which might materially injure our export
+trade. The Tariff Reformer would place these on a free list, for he
+feels that, however strong may be the argument for moderate all-round
+duties as a guiding rule, it is necessary to admit exceptions even to
+the best of rules, and it is part of his creed that we are bound to
+study the actual effect of particular duties both upon ourselves and
+upon others. No doubt that means hard work, an intimate acquaintance
+with the details of our industry and trade, an eye upon the
+proceedings of foreign countries. A modern tariff, if it is to be
+really suitable to the requirements of the nation adopting it, must be
+the work of experts. But is that any argument against it? Are we less
+competent to make a thorough study of these questions than other
+people, as for instance the Germans, or are we too lazy? Free Traders
+make fun of a scientific tariff, but why should science be excluded
+from the domain of fiscal policy, especially when the necessity of it
+is so vigorously and so justly impressed upon us in every other field?
+It is not only the War Office which has got to get rid of antiquated
+prejudices and to open its eyes to what is going on in the world. Our
+financial departments might reasonably be asked to do the same, and
+they are quite equally capable, and I have no doubt equally willing,
+to respond to such an appeal, instead of leaving the most thorough,
+the most comprehensive, and the most valuable inquiry into the effects
+of import duties, which has ever been made in this country, to a
+private agency like the Tariff Commission.
+
+I do not think it is necessary for me to point out how a widespread
+tariff, besides those other advantages which I have indicated, would
+strengthen our hands in commercial policy. In the first place, it
+would at once enable us to meet the advances of the other States of
+the Empire, and to make the British Empire in its commercial aspect a
+permanent reality. To do this it would not be necessary, nor do I
+think it would be right, to exempt goods from the British Dominions
+entirely from the duties to which similar goods coming from foreign
+lands are subject. Our purpose would be equally well served by doing
+what the Colonies do, and having two scales of duty, a lower one for
+the products of all British States and Dependencies, a higher one for
+those of the outside world. The amount of this preference would be a
+matter of bargain to be settled by some future Imperial Conference,
+not foredoomed to failure, and preceded by careful preliminary
+investigation and negotiations. It might be twenty-five, or
+thirty-three, or even fifty per cent. And whatever it was, I think we
+should reserve the right also to give a preference, but never of the
+same amount, to any foreign country which was willing to give us some
+substantial equivalent. It need not be a general preference; it might
+be the removal or reduction of some particular duties. I may say I do
+not myself like the idea of engaging in tariff wars. I do not believe
+in prohibitive or penal tariffs. But I do believe in having something
+to give to those who treat us well, something to withhold from those
+who treat us badly. At present, as you are well aware, Great Britain
+is the one great nation which is treated with absolute disregard by
+foreign countries in framing their tariffs. They know that however
+badly they treat us they have nothing to lose by it, and so we go to
+the wall on every occasion.
+
+And now, though there is a great deal more to be said, I feel I must
+not trespass much further on your patience. But there is one objection
+to Tariff Reform which is constantly made, and which is at once so
+untrue and so damaging, that before sitting down I should like to say
+a few words about it. We are told that this is an attempt to transfer
+the burden of a part of our taxation from the shoulders of the rich to
+those of the poor. If that were true, it would be fatal to Tariff
+Reform, and I for one would have nothing to do with it. But it is not
+true. There is no proposal to reduce and I believe there is no
+possibility of reducing, the burden which at present falls on the
+shoulders of the upper and middle classes in the shape of direct
+taxation. On the other hand, I do not believe there is much room for
+increasing it--though I think it can be increased in one or two
+directions--without consequences which the poorer classes would be the
+first to feel. Excise duties, which are mainly paid by those classes,
+are already about as high as they can be. It follows that for any
+increase of revenue, beyond the ordinary growth arising from increase
+of wealth and population, you must look, at least to a great extent,
+to Customs duties. And the tendency of the time is towards increased
+expenditure, all of it, mind you--and I do not complain of the
+fact--due to the effort to improve the condition of the mass of the
+people. It is thus no question of shifting existing burdens, it is a
+question of distributing the burden of new expenditure of which the
+mass of the people will derive the benefit. And if that new
+expenditure must, as I think I have shown, be met, at least in large
+part, by Customs duties, which method of raising these duties is more
+in the interest of the poorer classes--our present system, which
+enhances enormously the price of a few articles of universal
+consumption like tea and sugar and tobacco, or a tariff spread over a
+much greater number of articles at a much lower rate? Beyond all doubt
+or question the mass of the people would be better off under the
+latter system. Even assuming--as I will for the sake of argument,
+though I do not admit it--that the British consumer pays the whole of
+the duty on imported foreign goods competing with British goods, is it
+not evident that the poorer classes of the community would pay a
+smaller proportion of Customs duties under a tariff which included a
+great number of foreign manufactured articles, at present entirely
+free, and largely the luxuries of the rich, than they do, when Customs
+duties are restricted to a few articles of universal consumption?
+
+And that is at the same time the answer to the misleading, and often
+dishonest, outcry about "taxing the food of the people," about the big
+loaf and little loaf, and all the rest of it. The construction of a
+sensible all-round tariff presents many difficulties, but there is
+one difficulty which it does not present, and that is the difficulty
+of so adjusting your duties that the total proportion of them falling
+upon the wage-earning classes shall not be increased. I for one regard
+such an adjustment as a postulate in any scheme of Tariff Reform. And
+just one other argument--and I recommend it especially to those
+working-class leaders who are so vehement in their denunciation of
+Tariff Reform. Is it of no importance to the people whom they
+especially claim to represent that our fiscal policy should lean so
+heavily in favour of the foreign and against the British producer? If
+they regard that as a matter of indifference, I think they will come
+to find in time that the mass of the working classes do not agree with
+them. But be that as it may, it is certain that I, for one, do not
+advocate Tariff Reform in the interests of the rich, but in the
+interests of the whole nation, and therefore necessarily of the
+working classes, who are the majority of the nation.
+
+
+
+
+A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY
+
+Guildford, October 29, 1907
+
+
+I am very sensible of the honour of being called on to reply for the
+Unionist cause, but I approach the task with some diffidence, not to
+say trepidation. I feel very conscious that I am not a very good
+specimen of a party man. It is not that I do not hold strong opinions
+on many public questions--in fact, that is the very trouble. My
+opinions are too strong to fit well into any recognised programme. I
+suffer from an inveterate habit, which is partly congenital, but which
+has been developed by years spent in the service of the Crown, of
+looking at public questions from other than party points of view. And
+I am too old to unlearn it.
+
+For a man so constituted there is evidently only a limited _rôle_ in
+political life. But he may have his uses all the same, if you take
+him for what he is, and not for what he is not, and does not pretend
+to be. If he does not speak with the weight and authority of a party
+leader, he is at least free from the embarrassments by which a party
+leader is beset, and unhampered by the caution which a party leader is
+bound to exercise. He commits nobody but himself, and therefore he can
+afford to speak with a bluntness which is denied to those whose
+utterances commit many thousands of other people. And I am not sure
+whether the present moment is not one at which the unconventional
+treatment of public questions may not be specially useful, so, whether
+it be as an independent Unionist or as a friendly outsider--in
+whichever light you like to regard me--I venture to contribute my mite
+to the discussion.
+
+Having now made my position clear, I will at once plunge _in medias
+res_ with a few artless observations. You hear all this grumbling
+which is going on just now against the Unionist leader. Well,
+gentlemen, a party which is in low water always does grumble at its
+leader. I have known this sort of thing happen over and over again in
+my own lifetime. And the consequence is, it is all like water on a
+duck's back to me; it makes no impression on me whatsoever. I remember
+as long back as the late sixties and early seventies the Conservative
+party were ceaselessly grumbling at Lord Beaconsfield, then Mr.
+Disraeli, right up to his greatest victory and the commencement of his
+longest tenure of power--almost up to the moment when he became the
+permanent idol of the Conservative party. I remember how the Liberals
+grumbled at Mr. Gladstone from 1873 and 1874 almost up to the opening
+of the Midlothian campaign. Again, I remember how the Conservatives
+grumbled at Lord Salisbury from the first moment of his accession to
+the leadership right up to 1885. I can recall as well as if it were
+yesterday a young Tory friend of mine--he has become a distinguished
+man since, and I am not going to give him away--telling me, who was at
+that time a Liberal, in the year of grace 1883 or 1884, that it was
+absolutely hopeless for the Tory party ever to expect to come back
+into power with such a leader as Lord Salisbury. He called him a
+"Professor." He said, "No doubt he is a very able man and an excellent
+speaker, but he is a man of science. He has no popular gifts whatever.
+There is not a ghost of a chance of a Conservative victory so long as
+he is in command." Yet that was not more than two years before Lord
+Salisbury commenced a series of Premierships which kept him, for some
+thirteen and a half years out of seventeen, at the helm of the State.
+
+With all these experiences to look back upon it is really impossible
+for me to be much affected by the passing wave of dissatisfaction with
+Mr. Balfour. Men of first-rate ability and character are rare. Still
+rarer are men who, having those qualities, also have the knack of
+compelling the attention and respect even of a hostile House of
+Commons. When a party possesses a leader with all these gifts, it is
+not likely to change him in a hurry.
+
+But if I refuse to take a gloomy view of the Unionist leadership, I
+must admit that I am not altogether an optimist about the immediate
+prospects of Unionism. There is no doubt a bright side to the picture
+as well as a less encouraging one. The bright side, from the party
+point of view, is afforded by the hopeless chaos of opinion in the
+ranks of our opponents--by the total absence of any clear conviction
+or definite line whatever in the counsels of the Government, which
+causes Ministers to dash wildly from measure to measure in
+endeavouring to satisfy first one section and then another section of
+their motley following, and which prevents them from ever giving
+really adequate attention to any one of their proposals.
+
+I am not speaking of Ministers individually. Granted that some of them
+have done excellent work at the heads of their several departments--I
+think it would not be fair to deny that. I am thinking of their
+collective policy, and especially of their legislative efforts. For
+monuments of clumsy opportunism, commend me to the legislative
+failures, and, for the matter of that, to most of the legislative
+achievements, of the last two years.
+
+So far so good. Unionists cannot complain of what the Government is
+doing for them. And on the negative side of policy--in their duty as
+a mere Opposition--their course is clear. It is a fundamental article
+of their faith to maintain the authority of the Imperial Parliament in
+Ireland. But that authority can be set aside by the toleration of
+lawlessness just as much, and in a worse way, than by the repeal of
+the Union. And such toleration is the rule to-day. There may be no
+violent crime, but there is open and widespread defiance of the law
+and interference with the elementary rights of law-abiding people. It
+is a demoralising state of affairs, and one to which no good citizen
+in any part of the United Kingdom, however little he may be personally
+affected by it, can afford to be indifferent. Once let it be granted
+that any popular movement, which is not strong enough to obtain an
+alteration of the law by regular means, can simply set the law aside
+in practice, and you are at the beginning of general anarchy.
+
+Unionists have to fight for a restoration of the respect for law in
+Ireland in the interest of the whole kingdom. And they may have to
+fight also, it appears, against the abrogation of our existing
+constitution in favour of a system of quinquennial dictatorships. For
+that and nothing else is involved in the proposal to reduce the House
+of Lords to impotence and put nothing in its place. I am not concerned
+to represent the present constitution of the House of Lords as
+perfect. I have always been of opinion that a more representative and
+therefore a stronger second chamber was desirable. But that we can
+afford to do without any check on the House of Commons, especially
+since the removal of all checks upon the power of those who from time
+to time control the House of Commons to rush through any measures they
+please without the possibility of an appeal to the people--that is a
+proposition which no man with any knowledge of history or any respect
+for constitutional government can possibly defend. To resist such a
+proposal as that is not fighting for a party; it is not fighting for a
+class. It is fighting for the stability of society, for the
+fundamental rights of the whole nation.
+
+I say, then, that on the negative side, in the things it is called
+upon to resist, the Unionist party is strong and fortunate. But are we
+to be content with that? Should we not all like to feel that we
+appealed for the confidence of the people on the merits of our own
+policy, and not merely on the demerits of our opponents? That, I take
+it, is the feeling at the bottom of what men are saying on all hands
+just now--that the Unionist party ought to have a constructive policy.
+Now, if by a constructive policy is meant a string of promises, a sort
+of Newcastle programme, then I can well imagine any wise statesmen,
+especially if they happened to be in Opposition, thinking twice before
+they committed themselves to it. But if by a constructive policy is
+meant a definite set of principles, a clear attitude to the questions
+which most agitate the public mind, a sympathetic grasp of popular
+needs, and a readiness to indicate the extent to which, and the lines
+on which, you think it possible and desirable to satisfy them--then I
+agree that the Unionist party ought to have such a policy. And I
+venture to say that, if it has such a policy, the fact is not yet
+sufficiently apparent to the popular mind, or, perhaps, I should say,
+speaking as one of the populace, to my mind.
+
+Many people think that it is sufficient for the purpose--that it is
+possible to conduct a victorious campaign with the single watchword
+"Down with Socialism." Well, I am not fond of mere negatives. I do not
+like fighting an abstract noun. My objection to anti-Socialism as a
+platform is that Socialism means so many different things. On this
+point I agree with Mr. Asquith. I will wait to denounce Socialism till
+I see what form it takes. Sometimes it is synonymous with robbery, and
+to robbery, open or veiled, boldly stalking in the face of day or
+hiding itself under specious phrases, Unionists are, as a matter of
+course, opposed. But mere fidelity to the eighth Commandment is not a
+constructive policy, and Socialism is not necessarily synonymous with
+robbery. Correctly used, the word only signifies a particular view of
+the proper relation of the State to its citizens--a tendency to
+substitute public for private ownership, or to restrict the freedom of
+individual enterprise in the interests of the public. But there are
+some forms of property which we all admit should be public and not
+private, and the freedom of individual enterprise is already limited
+by a hundred laws. Socialism and Individualism are opposing
+principles, which enter in various proportions into the constitution
+of every civilised society; it is merely a question of degree. One
+community is more Socialistic than another. The same community is more
+Socialistic at one time than at another. This country is far more
+Socialistic than it was fifty years ago, and for most of the changes
+in that direction the Unionist and the Tory party are responsible. The
+Factory Acts are one instance; free education is another. The danger,
+as it seems to me, of the Unionist party going off on a crusade
+against Socialism is that in the heat of that crusade it may neglect,
+or appear to neglect, those social evils of which honest Socialism is
+striving, often, no doubt, by unwise means, to effect a cure. If the
+Unionist party did that, it would be unfaithful to its own best
+traditions from the days of "Sybil" and "Coningsby" to the present
+time.
+
+The true antidote to revolutionary Socialism is practical social
+reform. That is no claptrap phrase--although it may sound so; there is
+a great historical truth behind it. The revolutionary Socialist--I
+call him revolutionary because he wants to alter the whole basis of
+society--would like to get rid of all private property, except,
+perhaps, our domestic pots and pans. He is averse from private
+enterprise. He is going absurdly too far; but what gave birth to his
+doctrine? The abuse of the rights of private property, the cruelty and
+the failure of the scramble for gain, which mark the reign of a
+one-sided Individualism. If we had not gone much too far in one
+direction, we should not have had this extravagant reaction in the
+other. But do not let us lose our heads in face of that reaction.
+While resisting the revolutionary propaganda, let us be more, and not
+less, strenuous in removing the causes of it.
+
+You may think I am now talking pure Radicalism. Well, but it is not to
+the objects which many Radicals have at heart that we, as Unionists,
+need take exception. Why should we make them a present of those good
+objects? Old age pensions; the multiplication of small landholders--and,
+let me add, landowners; the resuscitation of agriculture; and, on the
+other hand, better housing in our crowded centres; town planning;
+sanitary conditions of labour; the extinction of sweating; the physical
+training of the people; continuation schools--these and all other
+measures necessary to preserve the stamina of the race and develop its
+intelligence and productive power--have we not as good a right to
+regard these as our objects, aye, and in many cases a better right, than
+the supporters of the Government have?
+
+It is not these objects which we deprecate. On the contrary, they have
+our ardent sympathy. What we do deprecate is the spirit in which they
+are so often preached and pursued. No progress is going to be
+made--quite the contrary--by stirring up class hatred or trying to rob
+Peter in order to pay Paul. It is not true that you cannot benefit one
+class without taking from another class--still less true that by
+taking from one you necessarily benefit another. The national income,
+the sum total of all our productive activities, is capable of being
+enormously increased or diminished by wise or foolish policy. For it
+does not only depend on the amount of capital and labour. A number of
+far subtler factors enter into the account--science, organisation,
+energy, credit, confidence, the spirit in which men set about their
+business. The one thing which would be certain to diminish that
+income, and to recoil on all of us, would be that war of classes which
+many people seem anxious to stir up. Nothing could be more fatal to
+prosperity, and to the fairest hopes of social progress, than if the
+great body of the upper and middle classes of the community had cause
+to regard that progress as indissolubly associated with an attack upon
+themselves. And that is why, if reforms such as I have indicated are
+costly--as they will be costly--you must find some better way of
+providing for them than by merely giving another turn to the
+income-tax screw, or just adding so much per cent. to the estate duty.
+
+From my point of view, social reform is a national affair. All classes
+benefit by it, not only those directly affected. And therefore all
+should contribute according to their means. I do not in any way object
+to the rich being made to contribute, even for purposes in which they
+are not directly interested. What I do object to is that the great
+body of the people should not contribute to them. It is thoroughly
+vicious in principle to divide the nation, as many of the Radical and
+Labour men want to divide it, into two sections--a majority which only
+calls the tune, and a minority which only pays the piper.
+
+I own I am aghast at the mean opinion which many politicians seem to
+have of the mass of their working fellow countrymen, when they
+approach them with this crude sort of bribery, offering them
+everything for nothing, always talking to them of their claims upon
+the State, and never of their duties towards it. This is a democratic
+country. It is their State and their Empire--theirs to possess, theirs
+to control, but theirs also to support and to defend. And I for one
+have such faith in the common sense and fair-mindedness of the British
+people that I believe you have only to convince them that you have a
+really sound national policy, and they will rally to it, without
+having to be bought by promises of a penny off this and twopence off
+the other--a sort of appeal, I regret to say, which is not only
+confined to Radical orators, but in which Unionists also are
+sometimes too apt to indulge.
+
+And, now, gentlemen, only one word in conclusion--a brief and
+inadequate reference to a vast subject, but one to which I am at all
+times and seasons specially bound to refer. After all, my chief
+quarrel with the Radical party--not with all of them--I do not say
+that for a moment--but with a far too large and influential
+section--is their anti-patriotism. I use the word advisedly. It is not
+that they are unpatriotic in the sense of having no affection for
+their country. It is that they are deliberately and on principle--I do
+not asperse their motives; I do not question their sincerity and
+conviction--anti-patriotic, opposed to national as distinct from
+cosmopolitan ideals. They are not zealous for national defence; they
+have no faith in the Empire; they love to show their impartiality by
+taking sides against their own country; they object to their children
+being taught respect for the flag. But we Unionists are not
+cosmopolitans, but Britons. We have no envy or ill-will towards other
+nations; a man is not a worse neighbour because he loves his own
+family. But we do hold that it is not our business to look after
+others. It is our business to look after ourselves and our
+dependencies, and the great kindred communities who own allegiance to
+the British flag. We want to draw closer to them, to stand together;
+and we believe that the strength and the unity of the British Empire
+are of vital and practical importance to every citizen. In all our
+propaganda, and in all our policy, let us continue to give that great
+principle a foremost place.
+
+
+
+
+UNIONISTS AND THE EMPIRE
+
+Edinburgh, November 15, 1907
+
+
+I am greatly reassured by the very kind reception which you have just
+given me. To tell the truth, I had been feeling a little alarmed at
+the fate which might await me in Edinburgh. From a faithful perusal of
+the Radical Press I had been led to believe that Scotland was seething
+with righteous indignation against that branch of the Legislature of
+which I am, it is true, only a humble and very recent member, but yet
+a member, and therefore involved in the general condemnation of the
+ruthless hereditary tyrants and oppressors of the people, the
+privileged landowning class, which is alleged to be so out of sympathy
+with the mass of their fellow-countrymen, although, oddly enough, it
+supplies many of the most popular candidates, not only of one party,
+at any General Election. Personally, I feel it rather hard to be
+painted in such black colours. There is no taint of hereditary
+privilege about me. I am not--I wish I were--the owner of broad acres,
+and I am in no way conscious of belonging to a specially favoured
+class. There are a great many of my fellow members in the House of
+Lords who are in the same position, and who sit there, not by virtue
+of any privilege, but by virtue of their services, or, let me say in
+my own case, supposed services, to the State. And while we sit
+there--and here I venture, with all humility, to speak for all the
+members of that body, whether hereditary or created--we feel that we
+ought to deal with the questions submitted to us to the best of our
+judgment and conscience, without fear of the consequences to ourselves
+and without allowing ourselves to be brow-beaten for not being
+different from what we are. We believe that we perform a useful and
+necessary function. We believe that a Second Chamber is essential to
+the good government of this country. We do not contend--certainly I am
+myself very far from contending--that the existing Second Chamber is
+the best imaginable. Let there be a well-considered reform of the
+House of Lords, or even, if need be, an entirely different Second
+Chamber. But until you have got this better instrument, do not throw
+away the instrument which you have--the only defence, not of the
+privileges of a class, but of the rights of the whole nation, against
+hasty, ill-considered measures and against the subordination of
+permanent national interests to the temporary exigencies of a party.
+
+It is said that there is a permanent Conservative majority in the
+House of Lords. But then every Second Chamber is, and ought to be,
+conservative in temper. It exists to exercise a restraining influence,
+to ensure that great changes shall not be made in fundamental
+institutions except by the deliberate will of the nation, and not as
+the outcome of a mere passing mood. And if the accusation is, that the
+House of Lords is too Conservative in a party sense, which is a
+different thing, I admit, from being Conservative in the highest and
+best sense, that points not to doing away with the Second Chamber, but
+to making such a change in its composition as, while leaving it still
+powerful, still, above all, independent, will render it more
+representative of the permanent mind of the nation.
+
+But let me be permitted to observe that the instance relied on to prove
+that the House of Lords is in the pocket of the Conservative party is a
+very unfortunate instance. What is its offence? It is said that the
+Lords rejected the Scottish Land Bill. But they did not reject the
+Scottish Land Bill. They were quite prepared to accept a portion of the
+Bill, and it is for the Government to answer to the people interested
+in that portion for their not having received the benefits which the
+Bill was presumably intended to bestow on them. What the Government did
+was to hold a pistol at the head of the House of Lords, and to say that
+they must either accept the whole straggling and ill-constructed
+measure as it stood, or be held up to public odium for rejecting it.
+But when the Bill was looked at as a whole, it was found to contain
+principles--novel principles as far as the great part of Scotland was
+concerned, bad principles, as the experience of Ireland showed--which
+the House of Lords, and not only the Conservatives in the House of
+Lords, were not prepared to endorse. Was it Conservative criticism
+which killed the Bill? It was riddled with arguments by a Liberal Peer
+and former Liberal Prime Minister--arguments to which the Government
+speakers were quite unable, and had the good sense not even to attempt,
+to reply. And that is the instance which is quoted to prove that the
+House of Lords is a Tory Caucus!
+
+Now, before leaving this question of the House of Lords, let me just
+say one word about its general attitude. I have not long been a member
+of that assembly. I do not presume to take much part in its
+discussions. But I follow them, and I think I follow them with a
+fairly unprejudiced mind. On many questions I am perhaps not in accord
+with the views of the majority of the House. But what strikes me about
+the House of Lords is that it is a singularly independent assembly. It
+is not at the beck and call of any man. It is a body which does not
+care at all about party claptrap, but which does care a great deal
+about a good argument, from whatever quarter it may proceed.
+Moreover, I am confident that the great body of its members are quite
+alive to the fact that they cannot afford to cast their votes merely
+according to their individual opinions and personal prejudices--that
+they are trustees for the nation, and that while it is their duty to
+prevent the nation being hustled into revolution, as but for them it
+would have been hustled into Home Rule in 1893, they have no right to
+resist changes upon which the nation has clearly and after full
+deliberation set its mind. And when the Prime Minister says that it is
+intolerable arrogance on the part of the House of Lords to pretend to
+know better what the nation wishes than the House of Commons, I can
+only reply that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. In 1893 the
+House of Commons said that the nation wished Home Rule. The House of
+Lords had the intolerable arrogance to take a different view. Well,
+within less than two years the question was submitted to the nation;
+and who proved to be right?
+
+I regret to have had to dwell at such length upon this particular
+topic. But it seems to me that we have no choice in the matter. If
+the Government succeed in their attempt to divert the attention of the
+nation from matters of the greatest interest at home and abroad in
+order to involve us all in a constitutional struggle on a false issue,
+we must be prepared to meet them. But I do not wish to waste the rare
+opportunity afforded to me to-night of addressing this great and
+representative Scottish audience by talking exclusively about this
+regrettable manoeuvre. There is something I am anxious to say to you
+about the future of the Unionist party. I do not claim to lay down a
+policy for that or for any party. I am not, by temperament or
+antecedents, a good party man. But I want to be allowed, as a private
+citizen, to point out what are the great services which I think the
+Unionist party can render to the nation at the present very critical
+juncture in its history. The Unionist party has a splendid record in
+the past. For twenty years it has saved the United Kingdom from
+disruption. It has preserved South Africa for the Empire; and, greatly
+as I feel and know, that the results of the efforts and sacrifices of
+the nation have been marred and impaired by the disastrous policy of
+the last two years, South Africa is still one country under the
+British flag. And all the time, in spite of foreign war and domestic
+sedition, the Unionist party has pursued a steady policy of practical
+social reform, and the administrative and legislative record of the
+last twenty years will compare favourably with that of any period of
+our history.
+
+But no party can afford to rely upon its past achievements. How is the
+Unionist party going to confront the great problems of the present
+day? The greatest of these problems, as I shall never cease to preach
+to my countrymen, is the maintenance of the great heritage which we
+owe to the courage, the enterprise, and the self-sacrifice of our
+forefathers, who built up one of the greatest Empires in history by,
+on the whole, the most honourable means. The epoch of expansion is
+pretty nearly past, but there remains before us a great work of
+development and consolidation. And that is a work which should appeal
+especially to Scotsmen. The Scottish people have borne a great part,
+great out of proportion to their numbers, in building up our common
+British heritage. They are taking a foremost part in it to-day. All
+over the world, as settlers in Canada, in Australia, or in South
+Africa, as administrators in India and elsewhere, they are among the
+sturdiest pillars on which the great Imperial fabric rests. I am not
+talking in the air. I am speaking from my personal experience, and
+only saying in public here to-night what I have said in private a
+hundred times, that as an agent of my country in distant lands I have
+had endless occasion to appreciate the support given to the British
+cause by the ability, the courage, the shrewd sense and the broad
+Imperial instinct of many Scotsmen. And therefore I look with
+confidence to a Scottish audience to support my appeal for continuous
+national effort in making the most of the British Empire. I say this
+is not a matter with regard to which we can afford to rest on our
+laurels. We must either go forward or we shall go back. And especially
+ought we to go forward in developing co-operation, on a basis of
+equality and partnership, with the great self-governing communities
+of our race in the distant portions of the world, else they will drift
+away from us. Do not let us think for a moment that we can afford such
+another fiasco as the late Colonial Conference. Do not let us imagine
+for a moment that we can go to sleep over the questions then raised,
+and not one of them settled, for four years, only to find ourselves
+unprepared when the next Conference meets. A cordial social welcome,
+many toasts, many dinners, are all very well in their way, but they
+are not enough. What is wanted is a real understanding of what our
+fellow countrymen across the seas are driving at, and a real attempt
+to meet them in their efforts to keep us a united family. All that our
+present rulers seem able to do is to misunderstand, and therefore
+unconsciously to misrepresent--I do not question their good
+intentions, but I think they are struck with mental blindness in this
+matter--to misrepresent the attitude of the colonists and greatly to
+exaggerate the difficulties of meeting them half-way. The speeches of
+Ministers on a question like that of Colonial Preference leave upon me
+the most deplorable impression. One would have thought that, if they
+could not get over the objections which they feel to meeting the
+advances of our kinsmen, they would at least show some sort of regret
+at their failure. But not a bit of it. Their one idea all along has
+been to magnify the difficulties in the way in order to make party
+capital out of the business. They saw their way to a good cry about
+"taxing the food of the people," the big and the little loaf, and so
+forth, and they went racing after it, regardless of everything but its
+electioneering value. From first to last there has been the same
+desire to make the worst of things, sometimes by very disingenuous
+means. First of all it was said that there was "no Colonial offer."
+But when the representatives of the Colonies came here, and all in the
+plainest terms offered us preference for preference, this device
+evidently had to be abandoned. So then it was asserted that, in order
+to give preference to the Colonies, we must tax raw materials. But
+this move again was promptly checkmated by the clear and repeated
+declaration of the Colonial representatives that they did not expect
+us to tax raw materials. And so nothing was left to Ministers,
+determined as they were to wriggle out of any agreement with the
+Colonies at all costs, except to fall back on the old, weary
+parrot-cry--"Will you tax corn?" "Will you tax butter?" and so on
+through the whole list of articles of common consumption, the taxation
+of any one of which was thought to be valuable as an electioneering
+bogey.
+
+For my own part, I am not the least bit frightened by any of these
+questions. If I am asked whether I would tax this or tax that, it may
+be proof of great depravity on my part, but I say without hesitation,
+that, for a sufficient object, I should not have the least objection
+to putting two shillings a quarter on wheat or twopence a pound on
+butter. But I must add that the whole argument nauseates me. What sort
+of opinion must these gentlemen have of their fellow countrymen, if
+they think that the question of a farthing on the quartern loaf or
+half a farthing on the pat of butter is going to outweigh in their
+minds every national consideration? And these are the men who accused
+Mr. Chamberlain of wishing to unite the Empire by sordid bonds! It is
+indeed extraordinary and to my mind almost heartrending to see how
+this question of Tariff Reform continues to be discussed on the lowest
+grounds, and how its higher and wider aspects seem to be so constantly
+neglected. Yet we have no excuse for ignoring them. The Colonial
+advocates of Preference, and especially Mr. Deakin, with whose point
+of view I thoroughly agree, have repeatedly explained the great
+political, national, and I might almost say moral aspects of that
+policy. There is a great deal more in it than a readjustment of
+duties--twopence off this and a penny on that. I do not say that such
+details are not important. When the time comes I am prepared to
+show--and I am an old hand at these things--that the objections which
+loom so large in many eyes can really be very easily circumvented. But
+I would not attempt to bother my fellow countrymen with complicated
+changes in their fiscal arrangements, or even with the discussion of
+them, if it were not for the bigness of the principle that is
+involved.
+
+I wish to look at it from two points of view. The principle which
+lies at the root of Tariff Reform, in its Imperial aspect, is the
+national principle. The people of these great dominions beyond the
+seas are no strangers to us. They are our own kith and kin. We do not
+wish to deal with them, even in merely material matters, on the same
+basis as with strangers. That is the great difference between us
+Tariff Reformers and the Cobdenites. The Cobdenite only looks at the
+commercial side. He is a cosmopolitan. He does not care from whom he
+buys, or to whom he sells. He does not care about the ulterior effects
+of his trading, whether it promotes British industry or ruins it;
+whether it assists the growth of the kindred States, or only enriches
+foreign countries. To us Tariff Reformers these matters are of moment,
+and of the most tremendous moment. We do not undervalue our great
+foreign trade, and I for one am convinced that there is nothing in the
+principles of Tariff Reform which will injure that trade. Quite the
+reverse. But we do hold that our first concern is with the industry
+and productive capacities of our own country, and our next with those
+of the great kindred countries across the seas. We hold that a wise
+fiscal policy would help to direct commerce into channels which would
+not only assist the British worker, but also assist Colonial
+development, and make for the greater and more rapid growth of those
+countries, which not only contain our best customers, but our fellow
+citizens.
+
+That, I say, is one aspect of the matter. But then there is the other
+side--the question of social reform in this country. Now here again we
+differ from the Cobdenite. The Cobdenite is an individualist. He
+believes that private enterprise, working under a system of unfettered
+competition, with cheapness as its supreme object, is the surest road
+to universal well-being. The Tariff Reformer also believes in private
+enterprise, but he does not believe that the mere blind struggle for
+individual gain is going to produce the most beneficent results. He
+does not believe in cheapness if it is the result of sweating or of
+underpaid labour. He keeps before him as the main object of all
+domestic policy the gradual, steady elevation of the standard of life
+throughout the community; and he believes that the action of the
+State deliberately directed to the encouragement of British industry,
+not merely by tariffs, is part and parcel of any sound national policy
+and of true Imperialism. And please observe that in a number of cases
+the Radical party itself has abandoned Cobdenism. Pure individualism
+went to the wall in the Factory Acts, and it is going to the wall
+every day in our domestic legislation. It is solely with regard to
+this matter of imports that the Radical party still cling to the
+Cobdenite doctrine, and the consequence is that their policy has
+become a mass of inconsistencies. It is devoid of any logical
+foundation whatever.
+
+I know that there are many people, sound Unionists at heart, who still
+have a difficulty about accepting the doctrines of the Tariff
+Reformers. My belief is that, if they could only look at the matter
+from the broad national and Imperial point of view, they would come to
+alter their convictions. I am not advocating Tariff Reform as in
+itself the greatest of human objects. But it seems to me the key of
+the position. It seems to me that, without it, we can neither take the
+first steps towards drawing closer the bonds between the mother
+country and the great self-governing States of the Empire; nor
+maintain the prosperity of the British worker in face of unfair
+foreign competition; nor obtain that large and elastic revenue which
+is absolutely essential, if we are going to pursue a policy of social
+reform and mean real business. I cannot but hope that many of those
+who still shy at Tariff Reform, when they come to look at it from this
+point of view--to see it as I see it, not as an isolated thing, but as
+an essential and necessary part of a comprehensive national
+policy--will rally to our cause. I have travelled along that road
+myself. I have been a Cobdenite myself--I am not ashamed of it. But I
+have come to see that the doctrine of free imports--the religion of
+free imports, I ought to say--as it is practised in this country
+to-day, is inconsistent with social reform, inconsistent with fair
+play to British industry, and inconsistent with the development and
+consolidation of the Empire. And therefore I rejoice that, in the
+really great speech which he delivered last night, the leader of the
+Unionist party has once more unhesitatingly affirmed his adhesion to
+the principles which I have been trying, in my feebler way, to
+advocate here this evening. My own conviction is that, when these
+principles are understood in all their bearings, they will command the
+approval of the mass of the people. And even in Scotland, where I dare
+say it is a very uphill fight, I look forward with confidence to their
+ultimate victory. Do not let us be discouraged if the fight is long
+and the progress slow. The great permanent influences are on our side.
+On the one hand there is the growth of the Empire, with all the
+opportunities which it affords; on the other there is the increasing
+determination of foreign nations to keep their business to themselves.
+These potent facts, which have already converted so many leading
+minds, will in due time make themselves felt in ever-widening circles.
+And they will not fail to produce their effect upon the shrewd
+practical sense of the Scottish people, especially when combined with
+an appeal to the patriotic instincts of a race which has done so much
+to make the Empire what it is, and which has such a supreme interest
+in its maintenance and consolidation.
+
+
+
+
+UNIONISTS AND SOCIAL REFORM
+
+Rugby, November 19, 1907
+
+
+There has been such a deluge of talk during the last three weeks that
+I doubt whether it is possible for me, or any man, to make a further
+contribution to the discussion which will have any freshness or value.
+But inasmuch as you probably do not all read all the speeches, you may
+perhaps be willing to hear from me a condensed summary of what it all
+comes to--of course, from my point of view, which no doubt is not
+quite the same as that of the Prime Minister or Mr. Asquith. Now, from
+my point of view, there has been a considerable clearing of the air,
+and we ought all to be in a position to take a more practical and less
+exaggerated view of the situation. Speaking as a Tariff Reformer, I
+think that those people, with whom Tariff Reformers agree on almost
+all other political questions, but who are strongly and
+conscientiously opposed to anything like what they call tampering with
+our fiscal system, must by now understand a little better than they
+did before what Tariff Reformers really aim at, and must begin to see
+that there is nothing so very monstrous or revolutionary about our
+proposals. I hope they may also begin to see why it is that Tariff
+Reformers are so persistent and so insistent upon their own particular
+view. There is something very attractive in the argument which says
+that, since Tariff Reform is a stumbling-block to many good Unionists,
+it should be dropped, and our ranks closed in defence of an effective
+Second Chamber, and in defence of all our institutions against
+revolutionary attacks directed upon the existing order of society. In
+so far as this is an argument for tolerance and against
+excommunicating people because they do not agree with me about Tariff
+Reform, I am entirely in accord with it. I am only a convert to Tariff
+Reform myself, although I am not a very recent convert, for at the
+beginning of 1903, at Bloemfontein, I was instrumental in inducing all
+the South African Colonies to give a substantial preference to goods
+of British origin. I was instrumental in doing that some months before
+the great Tariff Reform campaign was inaugurated in this country by
+its leading champion, Mr. Chamberlain. But while I am all for personal
+tolerance, I am opposed to any compromise on the question of
+principle. I am not opposed to it from any perverseness or any
+obstinacy. I am opposed to it because I see clearly that dropping
+Tariff Reform will knock the bottom out of a policy which I believe is
+not only right in itself, but is the only effective defence of the
+Union and of many other things which are very dear to us--I mean a
+policy of constructive Imperialism, and of steady, consistent,
+unhasting, and unresting Social Reform.
+
+I have never advocated Tariff Reform as a nostrum or as a panacea. I
+have never pretended that it is by itself alone sufficient to cure all
+the evils inherent in our social system, or alone sufficient as a bond
+of Empire. What I contend is that without it, without recovering our
+fiscal freedom, without recovering the power to deal with Customs
+Duties in accordance with the conditions of the present time and not
+the conditions of fifty years ago, we cannot carry out any of those
+measures which it is most necessary that we should carry out. Without
+it we are unable to defend ourselves against illegitimate foreign
+competition; we are unable to enter into those trade arrangements with
+the great self-governing States of the British Crown across the seas,
+which are calculated to bestow the most far-reaching benefits upon
+them and upon us; and we are unable to obtain the revenue which is
+required for a policy of progressive Social Reform. I hope that people
+otherwise in agreement with us, who have hitherto not seen their way
+to get over their objections to Tariff Reform, will, nevertheless,
+find themselves able to accept that principle, when they regard it,
+not as an isolated thing, but as an essential part of a great national
+and Imperial policy.
+
+Of course, they will have to see it as it is, and not as it is
+represented by its opponents. The opponents of Tariff Reform have a
+very easy method of arguing with its supporters. They say that any
+departure whatsoever from our present fiscal system necessarily
+involves taxing raw materials, and must necessarily result in high and
+prohibitive duties, which will upset our foreign trade, and will be
+ruinous and disorganising to the whole business of the country. But
+Tariff Reformers are not going to frame their duties in order to suit
+the argumentative convenience of Mr. Asquith. They are going to be
+guided by wholly different considerations from that. It is curious
+that everybody opposed to Tariff Reform says that Tariff Reformers
+intend to tax raw material, while Tariff Reformers themselves have
+steadily said they do not. I ask you in that respect to take the
+description of a policy of Tariff Reform from those who advocate it,
+and not from those who oppose it. And as for the argument about high
+prohibitive duties, I wish people would read the reports or summaries
+of the reports of the Tariff Commission. They contain not only the
+most valuable collection that exists anywhere of the present facts
+about almost every branch of British industry but they are also an
+authoritative source from which to draw inferences as to the
+intentions of Tariff Reformers. Now the Tariff Reform Commission have
+not attempted to frame a complete tariff, a scale of duties for all
+articles imported into this country, and wisely, because, if they had
+tried to do that, people would have said that they were arrogating to
+themselves the duties of Parliament. What they have done is to show by
+a few instances that a policy of Tariff Reform is not a thing in the
+air, not a mere thing of phrases and catchwords, but is a practical,
+businesslike working policy. They have drawn up what may be called
+experimental scales of duties, which are merely suggestions for
+consideration, with respect to a number of articles under the
+principal heads of British imports, such as, for instance,
+agricultural imports and imports of iron and steel. These experimental
+duties vary on the average from something like 5 per cent. to 10 per
+cent. on the value of the articles. In no one case in my recollection
+do they exceed 10 per cent.
+
+But then the opponents of Tariff Reform say: "Yes. That is all very
+well. But though you may begin with moderate duties, you are bound to
+proceed to higher ones. It is in the nature of things that you should
+go on increasing and increasing, and in the end we shall all be
+ruined." I must say that seems to me great nonsense. It reminds me of
+nothing so much as the fearful warnings which I have read in the least
+judicious sort of temperance literature, and sometimes heard from
+temperance orators of the more extreme type--the sort of warning, I
+mean, that, if you once begin touching anything stronger than water,
+you are bound to go on till you end by beating your wife and die in a
+workhouse. But you and I know perfectly well that it is possible to
+have an occasional glass of beer or glass of wine, or even, low be it
+spoken, a little whisky, without beating or wanting to beat anybody,
+and without coming to such a terrible end. The argument against the
+use of anything from its abuse has always struck me as one of the
+feeblest of arguments. And just see how particularly absurd it is in
+the present case. The effect of duties on foreign imports, even such
+moderate and carefully devised duties as those to which I have
+referred, would, we are told, be ruinous to British trade. It would
+place intolerable burdens upon the people. Yet for all that the people
+would, it appears, insist on increasing these burdens. Surely it is as
+clear as a pike-staff that, if the duties which Tariff Reformers
+advocate were to produce the evils which Free Importers allege that
+they would produce, these duties, so far from being inevitably
+maintained and increased, would not survive one General Election after
+their imposition.
+
+It is not only with regard to Tariff Reform that I think the air is
+clearer. The Unionist Party has to my mind escaped another danger
+which was quite as great as that of allowing the Tariff question to be
+pushed on one side, and that was the danger of being frightened by the
+scare, which the noisy spreading of certain subversive doctrines has
+lately caused, into a purely negative and defensive attitude; of
+ceasing to be, as it has been, a popular and progressive party, and
+becoming merely the embodiment of upper and middle class prejudices
+and alarms. I do not say that there are not many projects in the air
+which are calculated to excite alarm, but they can only be
+successfully resisted on frankly democratic and popular lines. My own
+feeling is--I may be quite wrong, but I state my opinion for what it
+is worth--that there is far less danger of the democracy going wrong
+about domestic questions than there is of its going wrong about
+foreign and Imperial questions, and for this simple reason, that with
+regard to domestic questions they have their own sense and experience
+to guide them.
+
+If a mistake is made in domestic policy its consequences are rapidly
+felt, and no amount of fine talking will induce people to persist in
+courses which are affecting them injuriously in their daily lives. You
+have thus a constant and effective check upon those who are disposed
+to try dangerous experiments, or to go too fast even on lines which
+may be in themselves laudable, as the experience of recent municipal
+elections, among other things, clearly shows. But with regard to
+Imperial questions, to our great and vital interests in distant parts
+of the earth, there is necessarily neither the same amount of personal
+knowledge on the part of the electorate, nor do the consequences of a
+mistaken policy recoil so directly and so unmistakably upon them.
+These subjects, therefore, are the happy hunting-ground of the
+visionary and the phrase-maker. I have seen the people of this country
+talked into a policy with regard to South Africa at once so injurious
+to their own interests, and so base towards those who had thrown in
+their lot with us and trusted us, that, if the British nation had only
+known what that policy really meant, they would have spat it out of
+their mouths. And I tremble every day lest, on the vital question of
+Defence, the pressure of well-meaning but ignorant idealists, or the
+meaner influence of vote-catching demagogues, should lead this
+Government or, indeed, any Government, to curtail the provisions,
+already none too ample, for the safety of the Empire, in order to pose
+as the friends of peace or as special adepts in economy. I know these
+savings of a million or two a year over say five or ten years, which
+cost you fifty or one hundred millions, wasted through unreadiness
+when the crisis comes, to say nothing of the waste of gallant lives
+even more precious. This is the kind of question about which the
+democracy is liable to be misled, being without the corrective of
+direct personal contact with the facts to keep it straight. And it is
+unpopular and up-hill work to go on reminding people of the vastness
+of the duty and the responsibility which the control of so great a
+portion of the earth's surface, with a dependent population of three
+or four hundred millions, necessarily involves; to go on reminding
+them, too, how their own prosperity and even existence in these
+islands are linked by a hundred subtle but not always obvious or
+superficially apparent threads with the maintenance of those great
+external possessions.
+
+I say these are difficulties which any party or any man, who is
+prepared to do his duty by the electorate of this country, not merely
+to ingratiate himself with them for the moment, but to win their
+confidence by deserving it, by telling them the truth, by serving
+their permanent interests and not their passing moods, is bound to
+face. For my own part, I have always been perfectly frank on these
+questions. I have maintained on many platforms, I am prepared to
+maintain here to-night and shall always maintain, although this is a
+subject on which it may be long before my views are included in any
+party programme--I say I shall always maintain that real security is
+not possible without citizen service, and that the training of every
+able-bodied man to be capable of taking part, if need be, in the
+defence of his country, is not only good for the country but good for
+the man--and would materially assist in the solution of many other
+problems, social and economic. But being, as I am, thus
+uncompromising, and quite prepared to find myself unpopular, on these
+vital questions of national security, and of our Imperial duties and
+responsibilities, I can perhaps afford to say, without being suspected
+of fawning or of wishing to play the demagogue myself, that in the
+matter of domestic reform I am not easy to frighten, and that I have a
+very great trust in the essential fair-mindedness and good sense of
+the great body of my fellow countrymen with regard to questions which
+come within their own direct cognisance. And therefore it was most
+reassuring to me at any rate--and I hope it was to you--to observe,
+that that large section of the Unionist Party which met at Birmingham
+last week, not so much by any resolutions or formal programme--for
+there was nothing very novel in these--as by the whole tone and temper
+of its proceedings, affirmed in the most emphatic manner the
+essentially progressive and democratic character of Unionism. The
+greatest danger I hold to the Unionist Party and to the nation is that
+the ideals of national strength and Imperial consolidation on the one
+hand, and of democratic progress and domestic reform on the other,
+should be dissevered, and that people should come to regard as
+antagonistic objects which are essentially related and complementary
+to one another. The upholders of the Union, the upholders of the
+Empire, the upholders of the fundamental institutions of the State,
+must not only be, but must be seen and known to be, the strenuous and
+constant assailants of those two great related curses of our social
+system--irregular employment and unhealthy conditions of life--and of
+all the various causes which lead to them.
+
+I cannot stay here to enumerate those causes, but I will mention a
+few of them. There is the defective training of children, defective
+physical training to begin with, and then the failure to equip them
+with any particular and definite form of skill. There is the irregular
+way in which new centres of population are allowed to spring up, so
+that we go on creating fresh slums as fast as we pull down the old
+rookeries. There is the depopulation of the countryside, and the
+influx of foreign paupers into our already overcrowded towns. There is
+the undermining of old-established and valuable British industries by
+unfair foreign competition. That is not an exhaustive list, but it is
+sufficient to illustrate my meaning. Well, wherever these and similar
+evils are eating away the health and independence of our working
+people, there the foundations of the Empire are being undermined, for
+it is the race that makes the Empire. Loud is the call to every true
+Unionist, to every true Imperialist, to come to the rescue.
+
+And now at the risk of wearying you there is one other subject to
+which I would like specially to refer, lest I should be accused of
+deliberately giving it the go-by, and that is the question of old age
+pensions. It is not a reform altogether of the same nature as those on
+which I have been dwelling, nor is it perhaps the kind of reform about
+which I feel the greatest enthusiasm, because I would rather attack
+the causes, which lead to that irregularity of employment and that
+under-payment which prevents people from providing for their own old
+age themselves, than merely remedy the evils arising from it. But I
+accept the fact that under present conditions, which it may be that a
+progressive policy in time will alter, a sufficient case for State aid
+in the matter of old age pensions has been made out, and I believe
+that no party is going to oppose the introduction of old age pensions.
+But, on the other hand, I foresee great difficulties and great
+disputes over the question of the manner in which the money is to be
+provided. I know how our Radical friends will wish to provide the
+money. They will want to get it, in the first instance, by starving
+the Army and the Navy. To that way of providing it I hope the Unionist
+Party, however unpopular such a course may be, and however liable to
+misrepresentation it may be, will oppose an iron resistance, because
+this is an utterly rotten and bad way of financing old age pensions,
+or anything else. But that method alone, however far it is carried,
+will not provide money enough, and there will be an attempt to raise
+the rest by taxes levied exclusively on the rich. I am against that
+also, because it is thoroughly wrong in principle. I am not against
+making the rich pay, to the full extent of their capacity, for great
+national purposes, even for national purposes in which they have no
+direct interest. But I am not prepared to see them made to pay
+exclusively. Let all pay according to their means. It is a thoroughly
+vicious idea that money should be taken out of the pocket of one man,
+however rich, in order to be put into the pocket of another, however
+poor. That is a bad, anti-national principle, and I hope the
+Unionist Party will take a firm stand against it. And this is an
+additional reason why we should raise whatever money may be necessary
+by duties upon foreign imports, because in that way all will
+contribute. No doubt the rich will contribute the bulk of the money
+through the duties on imported luxuries, but there will be some
+contribution, as there ought to be some contribution, from every class
+of the people.
+
+And now, in conclusion, one word about purely practical
+considerations. We Unionists, if you will allow me to call myself a
+Unionist--at any rate I have explained quite frankly what I mean by
+the term--are not a class party, but a national party. That being so,
+it is surely of the utmost importance that men of all classes should
+participate in every branch and every grade of the work of the
+Unionist Party. Why should we not have Unionist Labour members as well
+as Radical Labour members? I think that the working classes of this
+country are misrepresented in the eyes of the public of this country
+and of the world, as long as they appear to have no leaders in
+Parliament except the men who concoct and pass those machine-made
+resolutions with which we are so familiar in the reports of Trade
+Union Congresses. I am not speaking now about their resolutions on
+trade questions, which they thoroughly understand, but about
+resolutions on such subjects as foreign politics, the Army and Navy,
+and Colonial and Imperial questions, resolutions which are always
+upon the same monotonous lines. I do not believe that the working
+classes are the unpatriotic, anti-national, down-with-the-army,
+up-with-the-foreigner, take-it-lying-down class of Little Englanders
+that they are constantly represented to be. I do not believe it for a
+moment. I have heard Imperial questions discussed by working men in
+excellent speeches, not only eloquent speeches, but speeches showing a
+broad grasp and a truly Imperial spirit, and I should like speeches of
+that kind to be heard in the House of Commons as an antidote to the
+sort of preaching which we get from the present Labour members. And
+what I say about the higher posts in the Unionist Army applies equally
+to all other ranks. No Unionist member or Unionist candidate is really
+well served unless he has a number of men of the working class on what
+I may call his political staff. And I say this not merely for
+electioneering reasons. This is just one of the cases in which
+considerations of party interest coincide--I wish they always or often
+did--with considerations of a higher character. There is nothing more
+calculated to remove class prejudice and antagonism than the
+co-operation of men of different classes on the same body for the same
+public end. And there is this about the aims of Unionism, that they
+are best calculated to teach the value of such co-operation; to bring
+home to men of all classes their essential inter-dependence on one
+another, as well as to bring home to each individual the pettiness and
+meanness of personal vanity and ambition in the presence of anything
+so great, so stately, as the common heritage and traditions of the
+British race.
+
+
+
+
+SWEATED INDUSTRIES
+
+Oxford, December 5, 1907
+
+
+This exhibition is one of a series which are being held in different
+parts of the country with the object of directing attention, or rather
+of keeping it directed, to the conditions under which a number of
+articles, many of them articles of primary necessity, are at present
+being produced, and with the object also of improving the lot of the
+people engaged in the production of those articles. Now this matter is
+one of great national importance, because the sweated workers are
+numbered by hundreds of thousands, and because their poverty and the
+resulting evils affect many beside themselves, and exercise a
+depressing influence on large classes of the community. What do we
+mean by sweating? I will give you a definition laid down by a
+Parliamentary Committee, which made a most exhaustive inquiry into
+the subject: "Unduly low rates of wages, excessive hours of work, and
+insanitary condition of the workplaces." You may say that this is a
+state of things against which our instincts of humanity and charity
+revolt. And that is perfectly true, but I do not propose to approach
+the question from that point of view to-day. I want to approach it
+from the economic and political standpoint. But when I say political I
+do not mean it in any party sense. This is not a party question; may
+it never become one. The organisers of this exhibition have done what
+lay in their power to prevent the blighting and corrosive influence of
+party from being extended to it. The fact that the position which I
+occupy at this moment will be occupied to-morrow by the wife of a
+distinguished member of the present Government (Mrs. Herbert
+Gladstone), and on Saturday by a leading member of the Labour Party
+(Mr. G.N. Barnes, M.P.), shows that this is a cause in which people of
+all parties can co-operate. The more we deal with sweating on these
+lines, the more we deal with it on its merits or demerits without
+ulterior motive, the more likely we shall be to make a beginning in
+the removal of those evils against which our crusade is directed.
+
+My view is, that the sweating system impoverishes and weakens the
+whole community, because it saps the stamina and diminishes the
+productive power of thousands of workers, and these in their turn drag
+others down with them. "Unduly low rates of wages, excessive hours of
+labour, insanitary condition of workplaces"--what does all that mean?
+It means an industry essentially rotten and unsound. To say that the
+labourer is worthy of his hire is not only the expression of a natural
+instinct of justice, but it embodies an economic truth. One does not
+need to be a Socialist, not, at least, a Socialist in the sense in
+which the word is ordinarily used, as designating a man who desires
+that all instruments of production should become common property--one
+does not need to be a Socialist in that sense in order to realise that
+an industry, which does not provide those engaged in it with
+sufficient to keep them in health is essentially unsound. Used-up
+capital must be replaced, and of all forms of capital the most
+fundamental and indispensable is the human energy necessarily consumed
+in the work of production. A sweated industry does not provide for the
+replacing of that kind of capital. It squanders its human material. It
+consumes more energy in the work it exacts than the remuneration it
+gives is capable of replacing. The workers in sweated industries are
+not able to live on their wages. As it is, they live miserably, grow
+old too soon, and bring up sickly children. But they would not live at
+all, were it not for the fact that their inadequate wages are
+supplemented, directly, in many cases, by out-relief, and indirectly
+by numerous forms of charity. In one way or another the community has
+to make good the inefficiency that sweating produces. In one way or
+another the community ultimately pays, and it is my firm belief that
+it pays far more in the long run under the present system than if all
+workers were self-supporting. If a true account could be kept, it
+would be found that anything which the community gains by the
+cheapness of articles produced under the sweating system is more than
+outweighed by the indirect loss involved in the inevitable subsidising
+of a sweated industry. That would be found to be the result, even if
+no account were taken of the greatest loss of all, the loss arising
+from the inefficiency of the sweated workers and of their children,
+for sweating is calculated to perpetuate inefficiency and
+degeneration.
+
+The question is: Can anything be done? Of the three related
+evils--unduly low rates of wages, excessive hours of labour, and
+insanitary condition of work-places--it is evident that the first
+applies equally to sweated workers in factories and at home, but the
+two others are to some extent guarded against, in factories, by
+existing legislation. This is the reason why some people would like to
+see all work done for wages transferred to factories. Broadly
+speaking, I sympathise with that view. But if it were universally
+carried out at the present moment, it would inflict an enormous amount
+of suffering and injustice on those who add to their incomes by home
+work. Hence the problem is twofold. First, can we extend to workers in
+their own homes that degree or protection in respect of hours and
+sanitary conditions which the law already gives to workers in
+factories? And secondly, can we do anything to obtain for sweated
+workers, whether in homes or factories, rates of remuneration less
+palpably inadequate? Now it certainly seems impossible to limit the
+hours of workers, especially adult workers, in their own homes. More
+can be done to ensure sanitary conditions of work. Much has been done
+already, so far as the structural condition of dwellings is concerned.
+But I am afraid that the measures necessary to introduce what may be
+called the factory standard of sanitariness into every room, where
+work is being done for wages, would involve an amount of inspection
+and interference with the domestic lives of hundreds of thousands of
+people which might create such unpopularity as to defeat its own
+object. I do not say that nothing more should be attempted in that
+direction, quite the reverse; but I say that nothing which can be
+attempted in that direction really goes to the root of the evil, which
+is the insufficiency of the wage. How can you possibly make it healthy
+for a woman, living in a single room, perhaps with children, but even
+without, to work twelve or fourteen hours a day for seven or eight
+shillings a week, and at the same time to do her own cooking, washing,
+and so on. How much food is she likely to have? How much time will be
+hers to keep the place clean and tidy? An increase of wages would not
+make sanitary regulations unnecessary, but it would make their
+observance more possible.
+
+An increase of wages then is the primary condition of any real
+improvement in the lives of the sweated workers. So the point is this.
+Can we do anything by law to screw up the remuneration of the
+worst-paid workers to the minimum necessary for tolerable human
+existence? I know that many people think it impossible, but my answer
+is that the fixing of a limit below which wages shall not fall is
+already not the exception but the rule in this country. That may seem
+a rather startling statement, but I believe I can prove it. Take the
+case of the State, the greatest of all employers. The State does not
+allow the rates of pay even of its humblest employés to be decided by
+the scramble for employment. The State cannot afford, nor can any
+great municipality afford, to pay wages on which it is obviously
+impossible to live. There would be an immediate outcry. Here then you
+have a case of vast extent in which a downward limit of wages is fixed
+by public opinion. Take, again, any of the great staple industries of
+the country, the cotton industry, the iron and steel industry, and
+many others. In the case of these industries rates of remuneration are
+fixed in innumerable instances by agreement between the whole body of
+employers in a particular trade and district on the one hand and the
+whole body of employés on the other. The result is to exclude
+unregulated competition and to secure the same wages for the same
+work. No doubt there is an element--and this is a point of great
+importance--which enters into the determination of wages in these
+organised trades, but which does not enter in the same degree into the
+determination of the salaries paid by the State. That element is the
+consideration of what the employers can afford to pay. This question
+is constantly being threshed out between them and the workpeople,
+with resulting agreements. The number of such agreements is very
+large, and the provisions contained in them often regulate the rate of
+remuneration for various classes of workers with the greatest
+minuteness. But the great object, and the principal effect of all
+these agreements, is this: it is to ensure uniformity of remuneration,
+the same wage for the same work, and to protect the most necessitous
+and most helpless workers from being forced to take less than the
+employers can afford to pay. Broadly speaking, the rate of pay, in
+these highly organised industries, is determined by the value of the
+work and not by the need of the worker. That makes an enormous
+difference. But in sweated industries this is not the case. Sweated
+industries are the unorganised industries, those in which there is no
+possibility of organisation among the workers. Here the individual
+worker, without resources and without backing, is left, in the
+struggle of unregulated competition, to take whatever he can get,
+regardless of what others may be getting for the same work and-of the
+value of the work itself. Hence the extraordinary inequality of
+payment for the same kind of work and the generally low average of
+payment which are the distinguishing features of all sweated
+industries.
+
+Now, if you have followed this rather dry argument, I shall probably
+have your concurrence when I say, that the proposal that the State
+should intervene to secure, not an all-round minimum wage, but the
+same wages for the same work, and nothing less than the standard rate
+of his particular work for every worker, is not a proposition that the
+State should do something new, or exceptional, or impracticable. It is
+a proposal that the State should do for the weakest and most helpless
+trades what the strongly-organised trades already do for themselves. I
+cannot see that there is anything unreasonable, much less
+revolutionary or subversive, in that suggestion.
+
+This proposal has taken practical form in a Bill presented to the
+House of Commons last session. Whether the measure reached its second
+reading or not I do not know. It was a Bill for the establishment of
+Wages Boards in certain industries employing great numbers of
+workpeople, such as tailoring, shirtmaking, and so on. The industries
+selected were those in which the employés, though numerous, are
+hopelessly disorganised and unable to make a bargain for themselves.
+And the Bill provided that where any six persons, whether masters or
+employés, applied to the Home Secretary for the establishment of a
+Wages Board, such a Board should be created in the particular industry
+and district concerned; that it should consist of representatives of
+employers and employed in equal proportions, with an impartial
+chairman; and that it should have the widest possible discretion to
+fix rates of remuneration. If Wages Boards were established, as the
+Bill proposed, they would simply do for sweated trades what is already
+constantly being done in organised trades, with no doubt one important
+difference, that the decisions of these Boards would be enforceable by
+law. Now that no doubt may seem to many of you a drastic proposition.
+But I would strongly recommend any one interested in the subject to
+study a recently-published Blue-book, one of the most interesting I
+have ever read, which contains the evidence given before the House of
+Commons Committee on Home Work. That Blue-book throws floods of light
+on the conditions which have led to the proposal of Wages Boards, on
+the way in which these Boards would be likely to work, and on the
+results of the operation of such Boards in the Colony of Victoria,
+where they have existed for more than ten years, and now apply to more
+than forty industries. The perusal of that evidence would, I feel
+sure, remove some at least of the most obvious objections to this
+proposed remedy for sweating.
+
+Many people look askance, and justly look askance, at the interference
+of the State in anything so complicated and technical as a schedule of
+wages for any particular industry. But the point to bear in mind is
+this, that the wages, which under this proposal would be enforceable
+by law, would be wages that had been fixed for a particular industry
+in a particular district by persons intimately cognisant with all the
+circumstances, and, more than that, by persons having the deepest
+common interest to avoid anything which could injure the industry. The
+rates of remuneration so arrived at would be based on the
+consideration of what the employers could afford to pay and yet retain
+such a reasonable rate of profit as would lead to their remaining in
+the industry. Such a regulation of wages would be as great a
+protection to the best employers against the cut-throat competition of
+unscrupulous rivals as it would be to the workers against being
+compelled to sell their labour for less than its value. There is
+plenty of evidence that the regulation of wages would be welcomed by
+many employers. And as for the fear sometimes expressed, that it would
+injure the weakest and least efficient workers, because, with
+increased wages, it would no longer be profitable to employ them, it
+must be borne in mind that people of that class are mainly home
+workers, and as remuneration for home work must be based on the piece,
+there would be no reason why they should not continue to be employed.
+No doubt they would not benefit as much as more efficient workers from
+increased rates, but _pro tanto_ they would still benefit, and that is
+a consideration of great importance. But even if this were not the
+case, I would still contend, that it was unjustifiable to allow
+thousands of people to remain in a preventable state of misery and
+degradation all their lives, merely in order to keep a tenth of their
+number out of the workhouse a few years longer.
+
+I have only one more word to say. I come back to the supreme interest
+of the community in the efficiency and welfare of all its members, to
+say nothing of the removal of the stain upon its honour and conscience
+which continued tolerance of this evil involves. That to my mind is
+the greatest consideration of all. That is the true reason, as it
+would be the sufficient justification, for the intervention of the
+State. And, or my own part, I feel no doubt that, whether by the
+adoption of such a measure as we have been considering, or by some
+other enactment, steps will before long be taken for the removal of
+this national disgrace.
+
+
+
+     Printed by BALLANTYNE & CO. LIMITED
+     Tavistock Street, London
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Fundamental Fallacies of Free Trade
+
+By L.S. AMERY
+
+(FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD)
+
+_Price 2s. net._
+
+
+These "Four Addresses on the Logical Groundwork of the Free Trade
+Theory," as they are described by the author on the title-page, are
+nothing less than a frontal attack on the dogmas of the Manchester
+School, as sacrificing the permanent interests of the nation to the
+ephemeral interests of the individual. They are bound on account of
+their originality and ability to provoke considerable controversy, and
+to compel the Cobdenites to make some attempt at an answer. The
+chapters are successively entitled "The Individualist Fallacy," "The
+Capitalist Fallacy," "The Trade Fallacy," and "Free Trade Psychology
+and Free Trade History."
+
+This is essentially a book to be read, marked, learned, and inwardly
+digested by all serious students of public affairs.
+
+
+THE "NATIONAL REVIEW" OFFICE 23 RYDER STREET, ST. JAMES'S, LONDON, S.W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   THE
+ NATIONAL
+  REVIEW
+
+ EDITED BY L.J. MAXSE
+
+ Price 2s. 6d. net
+
+ Monthly
+
+ Established 24 Years
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     The OUTLOOK says:
+
+     "Its pages are packed with vital writing ... foreign and
+     domestic affairs are discussed with masculine ability and
+     vigour ... a monthly survey of Imperial affairs such as no
+     other publication offers."
+
+
+     The SPECTATOR says:
+
+     "We do not hesitate to say that the 'National's Episodes'
+     are among the most brilliant, if, indeed, not the most
+     brilliant, contributions to modern political journalism.
+     Their verve, their fearlessness, their independence, and
+     their sincerity would alone render them remarkable; but in
+     addition they are written in a style as clear and buoyant as
+     it is picturesque and unconventional."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Distinctive Features of the "National Review"_
+
+"EPISODES OF THE MONTH"
+
+An incisive commentary on Home and Foreign Affairs
+
+"AMERICAN AFFAIRS"
+
+By A. MAURICE LOW
+
+An indispensable guide to American Politics
+
+"GREATER BRITAIN AND INDIA"
+
+An invaluable review of Imperial events
+
+POLICY OF THE "NATIONAL REVIEW"
+
+To discuss each subject on its merits from the national standpoint
+without fear, favour, or partisan bias
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To those who wish to become acquainted with the "National Review," a
+specimen copy will be sent, post free, on application to the Manager.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     23 RYDER STREET,
+     ST. JAMES'S,
+     LONDON, S.W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Constructive Imperialism, by Viscount Milner
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSTRUCTIVE IMPERIALISM ***
+
+***** This file should be named 15681-8.txt or 15681-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/8/15681/
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading (https://www.pgdp.net).
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/15681-8.zip b/15681-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f678c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15681-8.zip
diff --git a/15681-h.zip b/15681-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59fc711
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15681-h.zip
diff --git a/15681-h/15681-h.htm b/15681-h/15681-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..146f95a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15681-h/15681-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,2382 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
+<html>
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Constructive Imperialism, by Viscount Milner, G.C.B..
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    P {  margin-top: .5em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .5em;
+         text-indent: 1em;
+         }
+    H1   {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    H5,H6 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    H2 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* centered and coloured */
+         }
+    H3 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* centered and coloured */
+         }
+    H4 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    HR { width: 33%;
+	margin-top: 1em;
+	margin-bottom: 1em;
+       }
+    BODY{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+    a  {text-decoration: none} /* no lines under links */
+    div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */
+    div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */
+
+    .tr       {margin: 0 5em 0 5em; background-color: #F6F2F2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;}
+    .cen      {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */
+    .sc       {font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%;} /* small caps, normal size */
+    .noin     {text-indent: 0em;} /* no indenting */
+    .linenum  {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */
+    .note     {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */
+    .blkquot  {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */
+    .pagenum  {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */
+    .totoc    {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 55%; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */
+    .img      {text-align: center; padding: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} /* centering images */
+    .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;}
+    .tdr      {text-align: right;} /* aligning cell content to the right */
+    .tdc      {text-align: center;} /* aligning cell content to the center */
+    .tdl      {text-align: left;}  /* aligning cell content to the left */
+    .tdlsc    {text-align: left; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */
+    .tdrsc    {text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */
+    .tdcsc    {text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */
+
+
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem span        {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 2em;}
+    .poem span.i4     {display: block; margin-left: 4em;}
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+   </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Constructive Imperialism, by Viscount Milner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Constructive Imperialism
+
+Author: Viscount Milner
+
+Release Date: April 22, 2005 [EBook #15681]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSTRUCTIVE IMPERIALISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading (https://www.pgdp.net).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p>Transcriber's Note: </p>
+
+<p>Two advertisements from the beginning of the book
+have been moved to the end.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+
+<a name="Page_1"></a>
+<a name="Page_2"></a>
+
+<a name="Page_3">
+</a><h1>CONSTRUCTIVE<br />
+IMPERIALISM</h1>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.</h2>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>FIVE SPEECHES</h3>
+<h5>DELIVERED AT</h5>
+<h4><i>TUNBRIDGE WELLS (OCTOBER 24, 1907)<br />
+GUILDFORD (OCTOBER 29, 1907)<br />
+EDINBURGH (NOVEMBER 15, 1907)<br />
+RUGBY (NOVEMBER 19, 1907)<br />
+AND OXFORD (DECEMBER 5, 1907)</i></h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>LONDON<br />
+THE NATIONAL REVIEW OFFICE<br />
+23 RYDER STREET, ST. JAMES'S<br />
+1908</h5>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><br />
+<br />
+
+<a name="Page_4"></a>
+
+<h2><a name="Page_5"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents">
+ <tr>
+  <td colspan="2" class="tdrsc" style="font-size: 85%;">Page</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td width="80%" class="tdlsc"><a href="#Tariff">Tariff Reform (Tunbridge Wells)</a></td>
+  <td width="20%" class="tdr">7</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#Constructive">A Constructive Policy (Guildford)</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">34</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#Unionists">Unionists and the Empire (Edinburgh)</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">50</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc"> <a href="#Social">Unionists and Social Reform (Rugby)</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">69</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc"> <a href="#Sweated">Sweated Industries (Oxford)</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">88</td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<a name="Page_6"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Tariff"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_7"></a>TARIFF REFORM<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>Tunbridge Wells, October 24, 1907</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>As this is a Tariff Reform meeting pure and simple, I am anxious not
+to approach the subject in any party spirit or in any spirit of
+acrimonious controversy. The question is a difficult and complicated
+one, and though I am a strong Tariff Reformer myself I hope I am not
+incapable of seeing both sides of the case. I certainly should have
+reason to be ashamed if I could not be fair to those whom, for the
+sake of brevity and convenience, I will call Free Traders, though I do
+not altogether admit the correctness of that designation. My views
+were once the same as theirs, and though I long ago felt constrained
+to modify them, and had become a Tariff Reformer some years before the
+subject attained its present prominence in public discussion, it would
+ill become me to <a name="Page_8"></a>treat as foolish arguments which I once found so
+convincing or to vilify opinions which I once honestly shared.</p>
+
+<p>What has happened to me is what I expect has happened to a good many
+people. I still admire the great Free Trade writers, the force of
+their intellect, the lucidity of their arguments. There can be no
+clearer proof of the spell which they exercised over the minds of
+their countrymen than the fact that so many leading public men on both
+sides of politics remain their disciples to this very day. But for my
+own part I have been unable to resist the evidence of facts which
+shows me clearly that in the actual world of trade and industry things
+do not work out even approximately as they ought to work out if the
+Free Trade theory were the counsel of perfection which I once thought
+it. And that has led me to question the theory itself, and so
+questioned it now seems to me far from a correct statement of the
+truth, even from the point of view of abstract inquiry. But I am not
+here to engage in abstract arguments. What I want to do is to look at
+the question from a strictly practical point of view, but at <a name="Page_9"></a>the same
+time a very broad one. I am anxious to bring home to you the place of
+Tariff Reform in a sound national policy, for, indeed, it seems to me
+very difficult to construct such a policy without a complete revision
+of our fiscal arrangements. Now a sound national policy has two
+aspects. There are two great objects of practical patriotism, two
+heads under which you may sum it up, much as the Church Catechism sums
+up practical religion, under the heads of &quot;duty to God&quot; and &quot;duty to
+your neighbour.&quot; These objects are the strength of the Empire, and the
+health, the well-being, the contentedness of the mass of the people,
+resting as they always must on steady, properly organised, and fairly
+remunerated labour. Remember always, these two things are one; they
+are inseparable. There can be no adequate prosperity for the forty or
+fifty million people in these islands without the Empire and all that
+it provides; there can be no enduring Empire without a healthy,
+thriving, manly people at the centre. Stunted, overcrowded town
+populations, irregular employment, sweated industries, these things
+are as detestable to true Imperialism as they <a name="Page_10"></a>are to philanthropy,
+and they are detestable to the Tariff Reformer. His aim is to improve
+the condition of the people at home, and to improve it concurrently
+with strengthening the foundations of the Empire. Mind you, I do not
+say that Tariff Reform alone is going to do all this. I make no such
+preposterous claim for it. What I do say is that it fits in better
+alike with a policy of social reform at home and with a policy
+directed to the consolidation of the Empire than our existing fiscal
+system does.</p>
+
+<p>Now, what is the essential difference between Tariff Reformers and the
+advocates of the present system? I must dwell on this even at the risk
+of appearing tiresome, because there is so much misunderstanding on
+the subject. In the eyes of the advocates of the present system, the
+statesman, or at any rate the British statesman, when he approaches
+fiscal policy, is confronted with the choice of Hercules. He is
+placed, like the rider in the old legend, between the black and the
+white horseman. On the one hand is an angel of light called Free
+Trade; on the other a limb of Satan called Protection. The one is
+entirely and always right; the other <a name="Page_11"></a>is entirely and always wrong.
+All fiscal wisdom is summed up in clinging desperately to the one and
+eschewing like sin anything that has the slightest flavour of the
+other. Now, that view has certainly the merit of simplicity, and
+simplicity is a very great thing; but, if we look at history, it does
+not seem quite to bear out this simple view. This country became one
+of the greatest and wealthiest in the world under a system of rigid
+Protection. It has enjoyed great, though by no means unbroken,
+prosperity under Free Trade. Side by side with that system of ours
+other countries have prospered even more under quite different
+systems. These facts alone are sufficient to justify the critical
+spirit, which is the spirit of the Tariff Reformer. He does not
+believe in any absolute right or wrong in such a matter as the
+imposition of duties upon imports. Such duties cannot, he thinks, be
+judged by one single test, namely, whether they do or do not favour
+the home producer, and be condemned out of hand if they do favour him.</p>
+
+<p>The Tariff Reformer rejects this single cast-iron principle. He
+refuses to bow down <a name="Page_12"></a>before it, regardless of changing circumstances,
+regardless of the policy of other countries and of that of the other
+Dominions of the Crown. He wants a free hand in dealing with imports,
+the power to adapt the fiscal policy of this country to the varying
+conditions of trade and to the situation created at any given time by
+the fiscal action of others. He has no superstitious objection to
+using duties either to increase employment at home or to secure
+markets abroad. But on the other hand he does not go blindly for
+duties upon foreign imports as so-called Free Traders go blindly
+against them, except in the case of articles not produced in this
+country, some of which the Free Traders are obliged to tax
+preposterously. Tariff Reform is not one-ideaed, rigid, inelastic, as
+our existing system is. Many people are afraid of it, because they
+think Tariff Reformers want to put duties on foreign goods for the fun
+of the thing, merely for the sake of making them dearer. Certainly
+Tariff Reformers do not think that cheapness is everything. Certainly
+they hold that the blind worship of immediate cheapness may cost the
+<a name="Page_13"></a>nation dear in the long run. But, unless cheapness is due to some
+mischievous cause, they are just as anxious that we should buy cheaply
+as the most ardent Cobdenite, and especially that we should buy
+cheaply what we cannot produce ourselves. Talking of cheapness,
+however, I must make a confession which I hope will not be
+misunderstood by ladies present who are fond of shopping&mdash;I wish we
+could get out of the way of discussing national economics so much from
+the shopping point of view. Surely what matters, from the point of
+view of the general well-being, is the productive capacity of the
+people, and the actual amount of their production of articles of
+necessity, use, or beauty. Everything we consume might be cheaper, and
+yet if the total amount of things which were ours to consume was less
+we should be not richer but poorer. It is, I think, one of the first
+duties of Tariff Reformers to keep people's eyes fixed upon this vital
+point&mdash;the amount of our national production. It is that which
+constitutes the real income of the nation, on which wages and profits
+alike depend.</p>
+
+<p>And that brings me to another point. <a name="Page_14"></a>Production in this country is
+dependent on importation, more dependent than in most countries. We
+are not self-supplying. We must import from outside these islands vast
+quantities of raw materials and of the necessaries of life. That, at
+least, is common ground between the Free Trader and the Tariff
+Reformer. But the lessons they draw from the fact are somewhat
+different. The Free Trader is only anxious that we should buy all
+these necessary imports as cheaply as possible. The Tariff Reformer is
+also anxious that we should buy them cheaply, but he is even more
+anxious to know how we are going to pay for all this vast quantity of
+things which we are bound to import. And that leads him to two
+conclusions. The first is that, seeing how much we are obliged to buy
+from abroad in any case, he looks rather askance at our increasing our
+indebtedness by buying things which we could quite easily produce at
+home, especially with so many unemployed and half-employed people. The
+other, and this is even a more pressing solicitude to him, is that it
+is of vital importance to us to look after our external markets, <a name="Page_15"></a>to
+make sure that we shall always have customers, and good customers, to
+buy our goods, and so to enable us to pay for our indispensable
+imports. The Free Trader does not share this solicitude. He has got a
+comfortable theory that if you only look after your imports your
+exports will look after themselves. Will they? The Tariff Reformer
+does not agree with that at all. Imports no doubt are paid for by
+exports, but it does not in the least follow that by increasing your
+dependence on others you will necessarily increase their dependence on
+you. It would be much truer to say: &quot;Look after the exports and the
+imports will look after themselves.&quot; The more you sell the more you
+will be able to buy, but it does not in the least follow that the more
+you buy the more you will be able to sell. What business man would go
+on the principle of buying as much as possible and say: &quot;Oh, that is
+all right. I am sure to be able to sell enough to pay for it.&quot; The
+first thought of a wise business man is for his markets, and you as a
+great trading nation are bound to think of your markets, not only your
+markets of <a name="Page_16"></a>to-day but of to-morrow and the day after to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>The Free Trade theory was the birth of a time when our imports were
+practically all supplemental to our exports, all indispensable to us,
+and when, on the other hand, the whole of the world was in need of our
+goods, far beyond our power of supplying it. Since then the situation
+has wholly altered. At this actual moment, it is true, there is
+temporarily a state of things which in one respect reproduces the
+situation of fifty years ago. There is for the moment an almost
+unlimited demand for some of our goods abroad. But that is not the
+normal situation. The normal situation is that there is an increasing
+invasion of our markets by goods from abroad which we used to produce
+ourselves, and an increasing tendency to exclude our goods from
+foreign markets. The Tariff Reform movement is the inevitable result
+of these altered circumstances. There is nothing artificial about it.
+It is not, as some people think, the work of a single man, however
+much it may owe to his genius and his courage, however much it may
+suffer, with <a name="Page_17"></a>other good causes, through his enforced retirement from
+the field. It is not an eccentric idea of Mr. Chamberlain's. Sooner or
+later it was bound to come in any case. It is the common sense and
+experience of the people waking up to the altered state of affairs,
+beginning to shake itself free from a theory which no longer fits the
+facts. It is a movement of emancipation, a twofold struggle for
+freedom&mdash;in the sphere of economic theory, for freedom of thought, in
+the sphere of fiscal policy, for freedom of action.</p>
+
+<p>And that freedom of action is needed quickly. It is needed now. I am
+not doubtful of the ultimate triumph of Tariff Reform. Sooner or
+later, I believe, it is sure to achieve general recognition. What does
+distress me is the thought of the opportunities we are losing in the
+meantime. This year has been marked, disastrously marked, in our
+annals by the emphatic and deliberate rejection on the part of our
+Government of the great principle of Preferential Trade within the
+Empire. All the other self-governing States are in favour of it. The
+United Kingdom alone blocks the way. What does that mean? What is it
+that <a name="Page_18"></a>we risk losing as long as we refuse to accept the principle of
+Preferential Trade, and will certainly lose in the long run if we
+persist in that refusal? It is a position of permanent and assured
+advantage in some of the greatest and most growing markets in the
+world. Preference to British goods in the British dominions beyond the
+sea would be a constant and potent influence tending to induce the
+people of those countries to buy what they require to buy outside
+their own borders from us rather than from our rivals. It means beyond
+all doubt and question so much more work for British hands. And the
+people of those countries are anxious that British hands should get
+it. They have, if I may so express myself, a family feeling, which
+makes them wish to keep the business within the family. But business
+is business. They are willing to give us the first chance. But if we
+will give nothing in return, if we tell them to mind their own
+business and not to bother us with offers of mutual concessions, it is
+only a question of time, and the same chance will be given to others,
+who will not refuse to avail themselves of it.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_19"></a>You see the beginning of the process already in such an event as the
+newly-concluded commercial treaty between Canada and France. If we
+choose, it is still possible for us not only to secure the preference
+we have in Colonial markets, but to increase it. But if we do nothing,
+commercial arrangements with other nations who are more far-sighted
+will gradually whittle that preference away. To my mind the action of
+Canada in the matter of that treaty, perfectly legitimate and natural
+though it be, is much more ominous and full of warning to us than the
+new Australian Tariff, about which such an unjustifiable outcry has
+been made. Rates of duty can be lowered as easily as they can be
+raised, but the principle of preference once abandoned would be very
+difficult to revive. I am sorry that the Australians have found it
+necessary in their own interests to raise their duties, but I would
+rather see any of the British Dominions raise its duties and still
+give a preference to British goods than lower its duties and take away
+that preference. Whatever duties may be imposed by Canada, Australia,
+or the other British Dominions, they will still remain <a name="Page_20"></a>great
+importers, and with the vast expansion in front of them their imports
+are bound to increase. They will still be excellent customers, and the
+point is that they should be our customers.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of Australia the actual extent of the preference accorded
+to British goods under the new tariff is not, as has been represented,
+of small value to us. It is of considerable value. But what is of far
+more importance is the fact that Australia continues to adhere to the
+principle of Preference. Moreover, Australia, following the example of
+Canada, has established an extensive free list for the benefit of this
+country. Let nobody say after this that Australia shows no family
+feeling. I for one am grateful to Australia, and I am grateful to that
+great Australian statesman, Mr. Deakin, for the way in which, in the
+teeth of discouragement from us, he has still persisted in making the
+principle of preferential trade within the Empire an essential feature
+of the Australian Tariff.</p>
+
+<p>Preference is vital to the future growth of British trade, but it is
+not only trade which is affected by it. The idea which lies at the
+root <a name="Page_21"></a>of it is that the scattered communities, which all own
+allegiance to the British Crown, should regard and treat one another
+not as strangers but as kinsmen, that, while each thinks first of its
+own interests, it should think next of the interests of the family,
+and of the rest of the world only after the family. That idea is the
+very corner-stone of Imperial unity. To my mind any weakening of that
+idea, any practical departure from it, would be an incalculable loss
+to all of us. I should regard a readjustment of our own Customs duties
+with the object of maintaining that idea, even if such readjustment
+were of some immediate expense to ourselves, as I hope to show you
+that it would not be, as a most trifling and inconsiderable price to
+pay for a prize of infinite value. I am the last man to contend that
+preferential trade alone is a sufficient bond of Empire. But I do
+contend that the maintenance or creation of other bonds becomes very
+difficult, if in the vitally important sphere of commerce we are to
+make no distinction between our fellow-citizens across the seas and
+foreigners. Closer trade relations involve closer relations in all
+other respects. An <a name="Page_22"></a>advantage, even a slight advantage, to Colonial
+imports in the great British market would tend to the development of
+the Colonies as compared with the foreign nations who compete with
+them. But the development of the British communities across the seas
+is of more value to us than an equivalent development of foreign
+countries. It is of more value to our trade, for, if there is one
+thing absolutely indisputable, it is that these communities buy ever
+so much more of us per head than foreign nations do. But it is not
+only a question of trade; it is a question of the future of our
+people. By encouraging the development of the British Dominions beyond
+the seas we direct emigration to them in preference to foreign lands.
+We keep our people under the flag instead of scattering them all over
+the world. We multiply not merely our best customers but our fellow
+citizens, our only sure and constant friends.</p>
+
+<p>And now is there nothing we can do to help forward this great object?
+Is it really the case, as the Free Traders contend, that in order to
+meet the advances of the other British <a name="Page_23"></a>States and to give, as the
+saying is, Preference for Preference, we should be obliged to make
+excessive sacrifices, and to place intolerable burdens on the people
+of this country? I believe that this is an absolute delusion. I
+believe that, if only we could shake off the fetters of a narrow and
+pedantic theory, and freely reshape our own system of import duties on
+principles of obvious common sense, we should be able at one and the
+same time to promote trade within the Empire, to strengthen our hands
+in commercial negotiations with foreign countries, and to render tardy
+justice to our home industries.</p>
+
+<p>The Free Trader goes on the principle of placing duties on a very few
+articles only, articles, generally, of universal consumption, and of
+making those duties very high ones. Moreover, with the exception of
+alcohol, these articles are all things which we cannot produce
+ourselves. I do not say that the system has not some merits. It is
+easy to work, and the cost of collection is moderate. But it has also
+great defects. The system is inelastic, for the duties being so few
+and so heavy it is difficult to raise them in case of emergency
+without <a name="Page_24"></a>checking consumption. Moreover, the burden of the duties
+falls entirely on the people of this country, for the foreign
+importer, except in the case of alcoholic liquors, has no home
+producer to compete with, and so he simply adds the whole of the duty
+to the price of the article. Last, but not least, the burden is
+inequitably distributed. It would be infinitely fairer, as between
+different classes of consumers, to put a moderate duty on a large
+number of articles than to put an enormous duty on two or three. But
+from that fairer and more reasonable system we are at present debarred
+by our pedantic adhesion to the rule that no duty may be put on
+imported articles unless an equivalent duty is put on articles of the
+same kind produced at home. Why, you may well ask, should we be bound
+by any such rule? I will tell you. It is because, unless we imposed
+such an equivalent duty, we should be favouring the British producer,
+and because under our present system every other consideration has got
+to give way to this supreme law, the &quot;categorical imperative&quot; of the
+Free Trader, that we must not do anything which could by any
+<a name="Page_25"></a>possibility in the remotest degree benefit the British producer in
+his competition with the foreigner in our home market. It is from the
+obsession of this doctrine that the Tariff Reformer wishes to liberate
+our fiscal policy. He approaches this question free from any doctrinal
+prepossessions whatever. Granted that a certain number of millions
+have to be raised by Customs duties, he sees before him some five to
+six hundred millions of foreign imports on which to raise them, and so
+his first and very natural reflection is, that by distributing duties
+pretty equally over this vast mass of imported commodities he could
+raise a very large revenue without greatly enhancing the price of
+anything. Our present system throws away, so to speak, the advantage
+of our vast and varied importation by electing to place the burden of
+duties entirely on very few articles. As against this system the
+Tariff Reformer favours the principle of a widespread tariff, of
+making all foreign imports pay, but pay moderately, and he holds that
+it is no more than justice to the British producer that all articles
+brought to the British market should contribute to <a name="Page_26"></a>the cost of
+keeping it up. It is no answer to say that it is the British consumer
+who would pay the duty, for even if this were invariably true, which
+it is not, it leaves unaffected the question of fair play between the
+British producer and the foreign producer. The price of the home-made
+article is enhanced by the taxes which fall upon the home makers, and
+which are largely devoted to keeping up our great open market, but the
+price of the foreign article is not so enhanced, though it has the
+full benefit of the open market all the same. Moreover, the price of
+the home-made article is also enhanced by the many restrictions which
+we place, and rightly place, on home manufacture in the interests of
+the workers&mdash;restrictions as to hours, methods of working, sanitary
+conditions, and so forth&mdash;all excellent, all laudable, but expensive,
+and from which the foreign maker is often absolutely, and always
+comparatively, free. The Tariff Reformer is all for the open market,
+but he is for fair play as between those who compete in it, and he
+holds that even cheapness ought not to be sought at the expense of
+unfairness to the British producer.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_27"></a>I say, then, that the Tariff Reformer starts with the idea of a
+moderate all-round tariff. But he is not going to ride his principle
+to death. He is essentially practical. There are some existing duties,
+like those on alcoholic liquors, the high rate of which is justified
+for other than fiscal reasons. He sees no reason to lower these
+duties. On the other hand, there are some articles, such as raw
+cotton, which compete with no British produce, and even a slight
+enhancement of the price of which might materially injure our export
+trade. The Tariff Reformer would place these on a free list, for he
+feels that, however strong may be the argument for moderate all-round
+duties as a guiding rule, it is necessary to admit exceptions even to
+the best of rules, and it is part of his creed that we are bound to
+study the actual effect of particular duties both upon ourselves and
+upon others. No doubt that means hard work, an intimate acquaintance
+with the details of our industry and trade, an eye upon the
+proceedings of foreign countries. A modern tariff, if it is to be
+really suitable to the requirements of the nation adopting it, must be
+the work of experts. <a name="Page_28"></a>But is that any argument against it? Are we less
+competent to make a thorough study of these questions than other
+people, as for instance the Germans, or are we too lazy? Free Traders
+make fun of a scientific tariff, but why should science be excluded
+from the domain of fiscal policy, especially when the necessity of it
+is so vigorously and so justly impressed upon us in every other field?
+It is not only the War Office which has got to get rid of antiquated
+prejudices and to open its eyes to what is going on in the world. Our
+financial departments might reasonably be asked to do the same, and
+they are quite equally capable, and I have no doubt equally willing,
+to respond to such an appeal, instead of leaving the most thorough,
+the most comprehensive, and the most valuable inquiry into the effects
+of import duties, which has ever been made in this country, to a
+private agency like the Tariff Commission.</p>
+
+<p>I do not think it is necessary for me to point out how a widespread
+tariff, besides those other advantages which I have indicated, would
+strengthen our hands in commercial policy. <a name="Page_29"></a>In the first place, it
+would at once enable us to meet the advances of the other States of
+the Empire, and to make the British Empire in its commercial aspect a
+permanent reality. To do this it would not be necessary, nor do I
+think it would be right, to exempt goods from the British Dominions
+entirely from the duties to which similar goods coming from foreign
+lands are subject. Our purpose would be equally well served by doing
+what the Colonies do, and having two scales of duty, a lower one for
+the products of all British States and Dependencies, a higher one for
+those of the outside world. The amount of this preference would be a
+matter of bargain to be settled by some future Imperial Conference,
+not foredoomed to failure, and preceded by careful preliminary
+investigation and negotiations. It might be twenty-five, or
+thirty-three, or even fifty per cent. And whatever it was, I think we
+should reserve the right also to give a preference, but never of the
+same amount, to any foreign country which was willing to give us some
+substantial equivalent. It need not be a general preference; it might
+be the removal or reduction of <a name="Page_30"></a>some particular duties. I may say I do
+not myself like the idea of engaging in tariff wars. I do not believe
+in prohibitive or penal tariffs. But I do believe in having something
+to give to those who treat us well, something to withhold from those
+who treat us badly. At present, as you are well aware, Great Britain
+is the one great nation which is treated with absolute disregard by
+foreign countries in framing their tariffs. They know that however
+badly they treat us they have nothing to lose by it, and so we go to
+the wall on every occasion.</p>
+
+<p>And now, though there is a great deal more to be said, I feel I must
+not trespass much further on your patience. But there is one objection
+to Tariff Reform which is constantly made, and which is at once so
+untrue and so damaging, that before sitting down I should like to say
+a few words about it. We are told that this is an attempt to transfer
+the burden of a part of our taxation from the shoulders of the rich to
+those of the poor. If that were true, it would be fatal to Tariff
+Reform, and I for one would have nothing to do with it. But it is not
+true. There is no proposal to reduce <a name="Page_31"></a>and I believe there is no
+possibility of reducing, the burden which at present falls on the
+shoulders of the upper and middle classes in the shape of direct
+taxation. On the other hand, I do not believe there is much room for
+increasing it&mdash;though I think it can be increased in one or two
+directions&mdash;without consequences which the poorer classes would be the
+first to feel. Excise duties, which are mainly paid by those classes,
+are already about as high as they can be. It follows that for any
+increase of revenue, beyond the ordinary growth arising from increase
+of wealth and population, you must look, at least to a great extent,
+to Customs duties. And the tendency of the time is towards increased
+expenditure, all of it, mind you&mdash;and I do not complain of the
+fact&mdash;due to the effort to improve the condition of the mass of the
+people. It is thus no question of shifting existing burdens, it is a
+question of distributing the burden of new expenditure of which the
+mass of the people will derive the benefit. And if that new
+expenditure must, as I think I have shown, be met, at least in large
+part, by Customs duties, which method of raising these <a name="Page_32"></a>duties is more
+in the interest of the poorer classes&mdash;our present system, which
+enhances enormously the price of a few articles of universal
+consumption like tea and sugar and tobacco, or a tariff spread over a
+much greater number of articles at a much lower rate? Beyond all doubt
+or question the mass of the people would be better off under the
+latter system. Even assuming&mdash;as I will for the sake of argument,
+though I do not admit it&mdash;that the British consumer pays the whole of
+the duty on imported foreign goods competing with British goods, is it
+not evident that the poorer classes of the community would pay a
+smaller proportion of Customs duties under a tariff which included a
+great number of foreign manufactured articles, at present entirely
+free, and largely the luxuries of the rich, than they do, when Customs
+duties are restricted to a few articles of universal consumption?</p>
+
+<p>And that is at the same time the answer to the misleading, and often
+dishonest, outcry about &quot;taxing the food of the people,&quot; about the big
+loaf and little loaf, and all the rest of it. The construction of a
+sensible all-round tariff <a name="Page_33"></a>presents many difficulties, but there is
+one difficulty which it does not present, and that is the difficulty
+of so adjusting your duties that the total proportion of them falling
+upon the wage-earning classes shall not be increased. I for one regard
+such an adjustment as a postulate in any scheme of Tariff Reform. And
+just one other argument&mdash;and I recommend it especially to those
+working-class leaders who are so vehement in their denunciation of
+Tariff Reform. Is it of no importance to the people whom they
+especially claim to represent that our fiscal policy should lean so
+heavily in favour of the foreign and against the British producer? If
+they regard that as a matter of indifference, I think they will come
+to find in time that the mass of the working classes do not agree with
+them. But be that as it may, it is certain that I, for one, do not
+advocate Tariff Reform in the interests of the rich, but in the
+interests of the whole nation, and therefore necessarily of the
+working classes, who are the majority of the nation.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Constructive"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_34"></a>A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>Guildford, October 29, 1907</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>I am very sensible of the honour of being called on to reply for the
+Unionist cause, but I approach the task with some diffidence, not to
+say trepidation. I feel very conscious that I am not a very good
+specimen of a party man. It is not that I do not hold strong opinions
+on many public questions&mdash;in fact, that is the very trouble. My
+opinions are too strong to fit well into any recognised programme. I
+suffer from an inveterate habit, which is partly congenital, but which
+has been developed by years spent in the service of the Crown, of
+looking at public questions from other than party points of view. And
+I am too old to unlearn it.</p>
+
+<p>For a man so constituted there is evidently only a limited <i>r&ocirc;le</i> in
+political life. But he may have his uses all the same, if you take
+<a name="Page_35"></a>him for what he is, and not for what he is not, and does not pretend
+to be. If he does not speak with the weight and authority of a party
+leader, he is at least free from the embarrassments by which a party
+leader is beset, and unhampered by the caution which a party leader is
+bound to exercise. He commits nobody but himself, and therefore he can
+afford to speak with a bluntness which is denied to those whose
+utterances commit many thousands of other people. And I am not sure
+whether the present moment is not one at which the unconventional
+treatment of public questions may not be specially useful, so, whether
+it be as an independent Unionist or as a friendly outsider&mdash;in
+whichever light you like to regard me&mdash;I venture to contribute my mite
+to the discussion.</p>
+
+<p>Having now made my position clear, I will at once plunge <i>in medias
+res</i> with a few artless observations. You hear all this grumbling
+which is going on just now against the Unionist leader. Well,
+gentlemen, a party which is in low water always does grumble at its
+leader. I have known this sort of thing happen over <a name="Page_36"></a>and over again in
+my own lifetime. And the consequence is, it is all like water on a
+duck's back to me; it makes no impression on me whatsoever. I remember
+as long back as the late sixties and early seventies the Conservative
+party were ceaselessly grumbling at Lord Beaconsfield, then Mr.
+Disraeli, right up to his greatest victory and the commencement of his
+longest tenure of power&mdash;almost up to the moment when he became the
+permanent idol of the Conservative party. I remember how the Liberals
+grumbled at Mr. Gladstone from 1873 and 1874 almost up to the opening
+of the Midlothian campaign. Again, I remember how the Conservatives
+grumbled at Lord Salisbury from the first moment of his accession to
+the leadership right up to 1885. I can recall as well as if it were
+yesterday a young Tory friend of mine&mdash;he has become a distinguished
+man since, and I am not going to give him away&mdash;telling me, who was at
+that time a Liberal, in the year of grace 1883 or 1884, that it was
+absolutely hopeless for the Tory party ever to expect to come back
+into power with such a leader as <a name="Page_37"></a>Lord Salisbury. He called him a
+&quot;Professor.&quot; He said, &quot;No doubt he is a very able man and an excellent
+speaker, but he is a man of science. He has no popular gifts whatever.
+There is not a ghost of a chance of a Conservative victory so long as
+he is in command.&quot; Yet that was not more than two years before Lord
+Salisbury commenced a series of Premierships which kept him, for some
+thirteen and a half years out of seventeen, at the helm of the State.</p>
+
+<p>With all these experiences to look back upon it is really impossible
+for me to be much affected by the passing wave of dissatisfaction with
+Mr. Balfour. Men of first-rate ability and character are rare. Still
+rarer are men who, having those qualities, also have the knack of
+compelling the attention and respect even of a hostile House of
+Commons. When a party possesses a leader with all these gifts, it is
+not likely to change him in a hurry.</p>
+
+<p>But if I refuse to take a gloomy view of the Unionist leadership, I
+must admit that I am not altogether an optimist about the immediate
+prospects of Unionism. There is no <a name="Page_38"></a>doubt a bright side to the picture
+as well as a less encouraging one. The bright side, from the party
+point of view, is afforded by the hopeless chaos of opinion in the
+ranks of our opponents&mdash;by the total absence of any clear conviction
+or definite line whatever in the counsels of the Government, which
+causes Ministers to dash wildly from measure to measure in
+endeavouring to satisfy first one section and then another section of
+their motley following, and which prevents them from ever giving
+really adequate attention to any one of their proposals.</p>
+
+<p>I am not speaking of Ministers individually. Granted that some of them
+have done excellent work at the heads of their several departments&mdash;I
+think it would not be fair to deny that. I am thinking of their
+collective policy, and especially of their legislative efforts. For
+monuments of clumsy opportunism, commend me to the legislative
+failures, and, for the matter of that, to most of the legislative
+achievements, of the last two years.</p>
+
+<p>So far so good. Unionists cannot complain of what the Government is
+doing for them. And on the negative side of policy&mdash;in their duty <a name="Page_39"></a>as
+a mere Opposition&mdash;their course is clear. It is a fundamental article
+of their faith to maintain the authority of the Imperial Parliament in
+Ireland. But that authority can be set aside by the toleration of
+lawlessness just as much, and in a worse way, than by the repeal of
+the Union. And such toleration is the rule to-day. There may be no
+violent crime, but there is open and widespread defiance of the law
+and interference with the elementary rights of law-abiding people. It
+is a demoralising state of affairs, and one to which no good citizen
+in any part of the United Kingdom, however little he may be personally
+affected by it, can afford to be indifferent. Once let it be granted
+that any popular movement, which is not strong enough to obtain an
+alteration of the law by regular means, can simply set the law aside
+in practice, and you are at the beginning of general anarchy.</p>
+
+<p>Unionists have to fight for a restoration of the respect for law in
+Ireland in the interest of the whole kingdom. And they may have to
+fight also, it appears, against the abrogation of our existing
+constitution in favour of a system <a name="Page_40"></a>of quinquennial dictatorships. For
+that and nothing else is involved in the proposal to reduce the House
+of Lords to impotence and put nothing in its place. I am not concerned
+to represent the present constitution of the House of Lords as
+perfect. I have always been of opinion that a more representative and
+therefore a stronger second chamber was desirable. But that we can
+afford to do without any check on the House of Commons, especially
+since the removal of all checks upon the power of those who from time
+to time control the House of Commons to rush through any measures they
+please without the possibility of an appeal to the people&mdash;that is a
+proposition which no man with any knowledge of history or any respect
+for constitutional government can possibly defend. To resist such a
+proposal as that is not fighting for a party; it is not fighting for a
+class. It is fighting for the stability of society, for the
+fundamental rights of the whole nation.</p>
+
+<p>I say, then, that on the negative side, in the things it is called
+upon to resist, the Unionist party is strong and fortunate. But are we
+to <a name="Page_41"></a>be content with that? Should we not all like to feel that we
+appealed for the confidence of the people on the merits of our own
+policy, and not merely on the demerits of our opponents? That, I take
+it, is the feeling at the bottom of what men are saying on all hands
+just now&mdash;that the Unionist party ought to have a constructive policy.
+Now, if by a constructive policy is meant a string of promises, a sort
+of Newcastle programme, then I can well imagine any wise statesmen,
+especially if they happened to be in Opposition, thinking twice before
+they committed themselves to it. But if by a constructive policy is
+meant a definite set of principles, a clear attitude to the questions
+which most agitate the public mind, a sympathetic grasp of popular
+needs, and a readiness to indicate the extent to which, and the lines
+on which, you think it possible and desirable to satisfy them&mdash;then I
+agree that the Unionist party ought to have such a policy. And I
+venture to say that, if it has such a policy, the fact is not yet
+sufficiently apparent to the popular mind, or, perhaps, I should say,
+speaking as one of the populace, to my mind.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_42"></a>Many people think that it is sufficient for the purpose&mdash;that it is
+possible to conduct a victorious campaign with the single watchword
+&quot;Down with Socialism.&quot; Well, I am not fond of mere negatives. I do not
+like fighting an abstract noun. My objection to anti-Socialism as a
+platform is that Socialism means so many different things. On this
+point I agree with Mr. Asquith. I will wait to denounce Socialism till
+I see what form it takes. Sometimes it is synonymous with robbery, and
+to robbery, open or veiled, boldly stalking in the face of day or
+hiding itself under specious phrases, Unionists are, as a matter of
+course, opposed. But mere fidelity to the eighth Commandment is not a
+constructive policy, and Socialism is not necessarily synonymous with
+robbery. Correctly used, the word only signifies a particular view of
+the proper relation of the State to its citizens&mdash;a tendency to
+substitute public for private ownership, or to restrict the freedom of
+individual enterprise in the interests of the public. But there are
+some forms of property which we all admit should be public and not
+private, and the freedom of individual enterprise <a name="Page_43"></a>is already limited
+by a hundred laws. Socialism and Individualism are opposing
+principles, which enter in various proportions into the constitution
+of every civilised society; it is merely a question of degree. One
+community is more Socialistic than another. The same community is more
+Socialistic at one time than at another. This country is far more
+Socialistic than it was fifty years ago, and for most of the changes
+in that direction the Unionist and the Tory party are responsible. The
+Factory Acts are one instance; free education is another. The danger,
+as it seems to me, of the Unionist party going off on a crusade
+against Socialism is that in the heat of that crusade it may neglect,
+or appear to neglect, those social evils of which honest Socialism is
+striving, often, no doubt, by unwise means, to effect a cure. If the
+Unionist party did that, it would be unfaithful to its own best
+traditions from the days of &quot;Sybil&quot; and &quot;Coningsby&quot; to the present
+time.</p>
+
+<p>The true antidote to revolutionary Socialism is practical social
+reform. That is no claptrap phrase&mdash;although it may sound so; there is
+a great historical truth behind it. The <a name="Page_44"></a>revolutionary Socialist&mdash;I
+call him revolutionary because he wants to alter the whole basis of
+society&mdash;would like to get rid of all private property, except,
+perhaps, our domestic pots and pans. He is averse from private
+enterprise. He is going absurdly too far; but what gave birth to his
+doctrine? The abuse of the rights of private property, the cruelty and
+the failure of the scramble for gain, which mark the reign of a
+one-sided Individualism. If we had not gone much too far in one
+direction, we should not have had this extravagant reaction in the
+other. But do not let us lose our heads in face of that reaction.
+While resisting the revolutionary propaganda, let us be more, and not
+less, strenuous in removing the causes of it.</p>
+
+<p>You may think I am now talking pure Radicalism. Well, but it is not to
+the objects which many Radicals have at heart that we, as Unionists,
+need take exception. Why should we make them a present of those good
+objects? Old age pensions; the multiplication of small
+landholders&mdash;and, let me add, landowners; the resuscitation of
+agriculture; and, on the other hand, better housing in <a name="Page_45"></a>our crowded
+centres; town planning; sanitary conditions of labour; the extinction
+of sweating; the physical training of the people; continuation
+schools&mdash;these and all other measures necessary to preserve the
+stamina of the race and develop its intelligence and productive
+power&mdash;have we not as good a right to regard these as our objects,
+aye, and in many cases a better right, than the supporters of the
+Government have?</p>
+
+<p>It is not these objects which we deprecate. On the contrary, they have
+our ardent sympathy. What we do deprecate is the spirit in which they
+are so often preached and pursued. No progress is going to be
+made&mdash;quite the contrary&mdash;by stirring up class hatred or trying to rob
+Peter in order to pay Paul. It is not true that you cannot benefit one
+class without taking from another class&mdash;still less true that by
+taking from one you necessarily benefit another. The national income,
+the sum total of all our productive activities, is capable of being
+enormously increased or diminished by wise or foolish policy. For it
+does not only depend on the amount of capital and labour. <a name="Page_46"></a>A number of
+far subtler factors enter into the account&mdash;science, organisation,
+energy, credit, confidence, the spirit in which men set about their
+business. The one thing which would be certain to diminish that
+income, and to recoil on all of us, would be that war of classes which
+many people seem anxious to stir up. Nothing could be more fatal to
+prosperity, and to the fairest hopes of social progress, than if the
+great body of the upper and middle classes of the community had cause
+to regard that progress as indissolubly associated with an attack upon
+themselves. And that is why, if reforms such as I have indicated are
+costly&mdash;as they will be costly&mdash;you must find some better way of
+providing for them than by merely giving another turn to the
+income-tax screw, or just adding so much per cent. to the estate duty.</p>
+
+<p>From my point of view, social reform is a national affair. All classes
+benefit by it, not only those directly affected. And therefore all
+should contribute according to their means. I do not in any way object
+to the rich being made to contribute, even for purposes in which they
+are not directly interested. What I do object <a name="Page_47"></a>to is that the great
+body of the people should not contribute to them. It is thoroughly
+vicious in principle to divide the nation, as many of the Radical and
+Labour men want to divide it, into two sections&mdash;a majority which only
+calls the tune, and a minority which only pays the piper.</p>
+
+<p>I own I am aghast at the mean opinion which many politicians seem to
+have of the mass of their working fellow countrymen, when they
+approach them with this crude sort of bribery, offering them
+everything for nothing, always talking to them of their claims upon
+the State, and never of their duties towards it. This is a democratic
+country. It is their State and their Empire&mdash;theirs to possess, theirs
+to control, but theirs also to support and to defend. And I for one
+have such faith in the common sense and fair-mindedness of the British
+people that I believe you have only to convince them that you have a
+really sound national policy, and they will rally to it, without
+having to be bought by promises of a penny off this and twopence off
+the other&mdash;a sort of appeal, I regret to say, which is not only
+confined to <a name="Page_48"></a>Radical orators, but in which Unionists also are
+sometimes too apt to indulge.</p>
+
+<p>And, now, gentlemen, only one word in conclusion&mdash;a brief and
+inadequate reference to a vast subject, but one to which I am at all
+times and seasons specially bound to refer. After all, my chief
+quarrel with the Radical party&mdash;not with all of them&mdash;I do not say
+that for a moment&mdash;but with a far too large and influential
+section&mdash;is their anti-patriotism. I use the word advisedly. It is not
+that they are unpatriotic in the sense of having no affection for
+their country. It is that they are deliberately and on principle&mdash;I do
+not asperse their motives; I do not question their sincerity and
+conviction&mdash;anti-patriotic, opposed to national as distinct from
+cosmopolitan ideals. They are not zealous for national defence; they
+have no faith in the Empire; they love to show their impartiality by
+taking sides against their own country; they object to their children
+being taught respect for the flag. But we Unionists are not
+cosmopolitans, but Britons. We have no envy or ill-will towards other
+nations; a man is not a worse neighbour because he loves his own
+<a name="Page_49"></a>family. But we do hold that it is not our business to look after
+others. It is our business to look after ourselves and our
+dependencies, and the great kindred communities who own allegiance to
+the British flag. We want to draw closer to them, to stand together;
+and we believe that the strength and the unity of the British Empire
+are of vital and practical importance to every citizen. In all our
+propaganda, and in all our policy, let us continue to give that great
+principle a foremost place.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Unionists"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_50"></a>UNIONISTS AND THE EMPIRE<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>Edinburgh, November 15, 1907</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>I am greatly reassured by the very kind reception which you have just
+given me. To tell the truth, I had been feeling a little alarmed at
+the fate which might await me in Edinburgh. From a faithful perusal of
+the Radical Press I had been led to believe that Scotland was seething
+with righteous indignation against that branch of the Legislature of
+which I am, it is true, only a humble and very recent member, but yet
+a member, and therefore involved in the general condemnation of the
+ruthless hereditary tyrants and oppressors of the people, the
+privileged landowning class, which is alleged to be so out of sympathy
+with the mass of their fellow-countrymen, although, oddly enough, it
+supplies many of the most popular candidates, not only of one party,
+at any General Election. <a name="Page_51"></a>Personally, I feel it rather hard to be
+painted in such black colours. There is no taint of hereditary
+privilege about me. I am not&mdash;I wish I were&mdash;the owner of broad acres,
+and I am in no way conscious of belonging to a specially favoured
+class. There are a great many of my fellow members in the House of
+Lords who are in the same position, and who sit there, not by virtue
+of any privilege, but by virtue of their services, or, let me say in
+my own case, supposed services, to the State. And while we sit
+there&mdash;and here I venture, with all humility, to speak for all the
+members of that body, whether hereditary or created&mdash;we feel that we
+ought to deal with the questions submitted to us to the best of our
+judgment and conscience, without fear of the consequences to ourselves
+and without allowing ourselves to be brow-beaten for not being
+different from what we are. We believe that we perform a useful and
+necessary function. We believe that a Second Chamber is essential to
+the good government of this country. We do not contend&mdash;certainly I am
+myself very far from contending&mdash;that the existing Second Chamber is
+the best <a name="Page_52"></a>imaginable. Let there be a well-considered reform of the
+House of Lords, or even, if need be, an entirely different Second
+Chamber. But until you have got this better instrument, do not throw
+away the instrument which you have&mdash;the only defence, not of the
+privileges of a class, but of the rights of the whole nation, against
+hasty, ill-considered measures and against the subordination of
+permanent national interests to the temporary exigencies of a party.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that there is a permanent Conservative majority in the
+House of Lords. But then every Second Chamber is, and ought to be,
+conservative in temper. It exists to exercise a restraining influence,
+to ensure that great changes shall not be made in fundamental
+institutions except by the deliberate will of the nation, and not as
+the outcome of a mere passing mood. And if the accusation is, that the
+House of Lords is too Conservative in a party sense, which is a
+different thing, I admit, from being Conservative in the highest and
+best sense, that points not to doing away with the Second Chamber, but
+to making such a change in its composition as, while leaving it still
+<a name="Page_53"></a>powerful, still, above all, independent, will render it more
+representative of the permanent mind of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>But let me be permitted to observe that the instance relied on to
+prove that the House of Lords is in the pocket of the Conservative
+party is a very unfortunate instance. What is its offence? It is said
+that the Lords rejected the Scottish Land Bill. But they did not
+reject the Scottish Land Bill. They were quite prepared to accept a
+portion of the Bill, and it is for the Government to answer to the
+people interested in that portion for their not having received the
+benefits which the Bill was presumably intended to bestow on them.
+What the Government did was to hold a pistol at the head of the House
+of Lords, and to say that they must either accept the whole straggling
+and ill-constructed measure as it stood, or be held up to public odium
+for rejecting it. But when the Bill was looked at as a whole, it was
+found to contain principles&mdash;novel principles as far as the great part
+of Scotland was concerned, bad principles, as the experience of
+Ireland showed&mdash;which the House of Lords, <a name="Page_54"></a>and not only the
+Conservatives in the House of Lords, were not prepared to endorse. Was
+it Conservative criticism which killed the Bill? It was riddled with
+arguments by a Liberal Peer and former Liberal Prime
+Minister&mdash;arguments to which the Government speakers were quite
+unable, and had the good sense not even to attempt, to reply. And that
+is the instance which is quoted to prove that the House of Lords is a
+Tory Caucus!</p>
+
+<p>Now, before leaving this question of the House of Lords, let me just
+say one word about its general attitude. I have not long been a member
+of that assembly. I do not presume to take much part in its
+discussions. But I follow them, and I think I follow them with a
+fairly unprejudiced mind. On many questions I am perhaps not in accord
+with the views of the majority of the House. But what strikes me about
+the House of Lords is that it is a singularly independent assembly. It
+is not at the beck and call of any man. It is a body which does not
+care at all about party claptrap, but which does care a great deal
+about a good argument, from whatever quarter <a name="Page_55"></a>it may proceed.
+Moreover, I am confident that the great body of its members are quite
+alive to the fact that they cannot afford to cast their votes merely
+according to their individual opinions and personal prejudices&mdash;that
+they are trustees for the nation, and that while it is their duty to
+prevent the nation being hustled into revolution, as but for them it
+would have been hustled into Home Rule in 1893, they have no right to
+resist changes upon which the nation has clearly and after full
+deliberation set its mind. And when the Prime Minister says that it is
+intolerable arrogance on the part of the House of Lords to pretend to
+know better what the nation wishes than the House of Commons, I can
+only reply that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. In 1893 the
+House of Commons said that the nation wished Home Rule. The House of
+Lords had the intolerable arrogance to take a different view. Well,
+within less than two years the question was submitted to the nation;
+and who proved to be right?</p>
+
+<p>I regret to have had to dwell at such length upon this particular
+topic. But it seems to me <a name="Page_56"></a>that we have no choice in the matter. If
+the Government succeed in their attempt to divert the attention of the
+nation from matters of the greatest interest at home and abroad in
+order to involve us all in a constitutional struggle on a false issue,
+we must be prepared to meet them. But I do not wish to waste the rare
+opportunity afforded to me to-night of addressing this great and
+representative Scottish audience by talking exclusively about this
+regrettable manoeuvre. There is something I am anxious to say to you
+about the future of the Unionist party. I do not claim to lay down a
+policy for that or for any party. I am not, by temperament or
+antecedents, a good party man. But I want to be allowed, as a private
+citizen, to point out what are the great services which I think the
+Unionist party can render to the nation at the present very critical
+juncture in its history. The Unionist party has a splendid record in
+the past. For twenty years it has saved the United Kingdom from
+disruption. It has preserved South Africa for the Empire; and, greatly
+as I feel and know, that the results of the efforts and <a name="Page_57"></a>sacrifices of
+the nation have been marred and impaired by the disastrous policy of
+the last two years, South Africa is still one country under the
+British flag. And all the time, in spite of foreign war and domestic
+sedition, the Unionist party has pursued a steady policy of practical
+social reform, and the administrative and legislative record of the
+last twenty years will compare favourably with that of any period of
+our history.</p>
+
+<p>But no party can afford to rely upon its past achievements. How is the
+Unionist party going to confront the great problems of the present
+day? The greatest of these problems, as I shall never cease to preach
+to my countrymen, is the maintenance of the great heritage which we
+owe to the courage, the enterprise, and the self-sacrifice of our
+forefathers, who built up one of the greatest Empires in history by,
+on the whole, the most honourable means. The epoch of expansion is
+pretty nearly past, but there remains before us a great work of
+development and consolidation. And that is a work which should appeal
+especially to Scotsmen. The Scottish people have borne a great <a name="Page_58"></a>part,
+great out of proportion to their numbers, in building up our common
+British heritage. They are taking a foremost part in it to-day. All
+over the world, as settlers in Canada, in Australia, or in South
+Africa, as administrators in India and elsewhere, they are among the
+sturdiest pillars on which the great Imperial fabric rests. I am not
+talking in the air. I am speaking from my personal experience, and
+only saying in public here to-night what I have said in private a
+hundred times, that as an agent of my country in distant lands I have
+had endless occasion to appreciate the support given to the British
+cause by the ability, the courage, the shrewd sense and the broad
+Imperial instinct of many Scotsmen. And therefore I look with
+confidence to a Scottish audience to support my appeal for continuous
+national effort in making the most of the British Empire. I say this
+is not a matter with regard to which we can afford to rest on our
+laurels. We must either go forward or we shall go back. And especially
+ought we to go forward in developing co-operation, on a basis of
+equality and partnership, with the great self-governing <a name="Page_59"></a>communities
+of our race in the distant portions of the world, else they will drift
+away from us. Do not let us think for a moment that we can afford such
+another fiasco as the late Colonial Conference. Do not let us imagine
+for a moment that we can go to sleep over the questions then raised,
+and not one of them settled, for four years, only to find ourselves
+unprepared when the next Conference meets. A cordial social welcome,
+many toasts, many dinners, are all very well in their way, but they
+are not enough. What is wanted is a real understanding of what our
+fellow countrymen across the seas are driving at, and a real attempt
+to meet them in their efforts to keep us a united family. All that our
+present rulers seem able to do is to misunderstand, and therefore
+unconsciously to misrepresent&mdash;I do not question their good
+intentions, but I think they are struck with mental blindness in this
+matter&mdash;to misrepresent the attitude of the colonists and greatly to
+exaggerate the difficulties of meeting them half-way. The speeches of
+Ministers on a question like that of Colonial Preference leave upon me
+the most deplorable impression. One <a name="Page_60"></a>would have thought that, if they
+could not get over the objections which they feel to meeting the
+advances of our kinsmen, they would at least show some sort of regret
+at their failure. But not a bit of it. Their one idea all along has
+been to magnify the difficulties in the way in order to make party
+capital out of the business. They saw their way to a good cry about
+&quot;taxing the food of the people,&quot; the big and the little loaf, and so
+forth, and they went racing after it, regardless of everything but its
+electioneering value. From first to last there has been the same
+desire to make the worst of things, sometimes by very disingenuous
+means. First of all it was said that there was &quot;no Colonial offer.&quot;
+But when the representatives of the Colonies came here, and all in the
+plainest terms offered us preference for preference, this device
+evidently had to be abandoned. So then it was asserted that, in order
+to give preference to the Colonies, we must tax raw materials. But
+this move again was promptly checkmated by the clear and repeated
+declaration of the Colonial representatives that they did not expect
+us to tax raw materials. And <a name="Page_61"></a>so nothing was left to Ministers,
+determined as they were to wriggle out of any agreement with the
+Colonies at all costs, except to fall back on the old, weary
+parrot-cry&mdash;&quot;Will you tax corn?&quot; &quot;Will you tax butter?&quot; and so on
+through the whole list of articles of common consumption, the taxation
+of any one of which was thought to be valuable as an electioneering
+bogey.</p>
+
+<p>For my own part, I am not the least bit frightened by any of these
+questions. If I am asked whether I would tax this or tax that, it may
+be proof of great depravity on my part, but I say without hesitation,
+that, for a sufficient object, I should not have the least objection
+to putting two shillings a quarter on wheat or twopence a pound on
+butter. But I must add that the whole argument nauseates me. What sort
+of opinion must these gentlemen have of their fellow countrymen, if
+they think that the question of a farthing on the quartern loaf or
+half a farthing on the pat of butter is going to outweigh in their
+minds every national consideration? And these are the men who accused
+Mr. Chamberlain of wishing to unite the <a name="Page_62"></a>Empire by sordid bonds! It is
+indeed extraordinary and to my mind almost heartrending to see how
+this question of Tariff Reform continues to be discussed on the lowest
+grounds, and how its higher and wider aspects seem to be so constantly
+neglected. Yet we have no excuse for ignoring them. The Colonial
+advocates of Preference, and especially Mr. Deakin, with whose point
+of view I thoroughly agree, have repeatedly explained the great
+political, national, and I might almost say moral aspects of that
+policy. There is a great deal more in it than a readjustment of
+duties&mdash;twopence off this and a penny on that. I do not say that such
+details are not important. When the time comes I am prepared to
+show&mdash;and I am an old hand at these things&mdash;that the objections which
+loom so large in many eyes can really be very easily circumvented. But
+I would not attempt to bother my fellow countrymen with complicated
+changes in their fiscal arrangements, or even with the discussion of
+them, if it were not for the bigness of the principle that is
+involved.</p>
+
+<p>I wish to look at it from two points of view. <a name="Page_63"></a>The principle which
+lies at the root of Tariff Reform, in its Imperial aspect, is the
+national principle. The people of these great dominions beyond the
+seas are no strangers to us. They are our own kith and kin. We do not
+wish to deal with them, even in merely material matters, on the same
+basis as with strangers. That is the great difference between us
+Tariff Reformers and the Cobdenites. The Cobdenite only looks at the
+commercial side. He is a cosmopolitan. He does not care from whom he
+buys, or to whom he sells. He does not care about the ulterior effects
+of his trading, whether it promotes British industry or ruins it;
+whether it assists the growth of the kindred States, or only enriches
+foreign countries. To us Tariff Reformers these matters are of moment,
+and of the most tremendous moment. We do not undervalue our great
+foreign trade, and I for one am convinced that there is nothing in the
+principles of Tariff Reform which will injure that trade. Quite the
+reverse. But we do hold that our first concern is with the industry
+and productive capacities of our own country, and our next with those
+of the great <a name="Page_64"></a>kindred countries across the seas. We hold that a wise
+fiscal policy would help to direct commerce into channels which would
+not only assist the British worker, but also assist Colonial
+development, and make for the greater and more rapid growth of those
+countries, which not only contain our best customers, but our fellow
+citizens.</p>
+
+<p>That, I say, is one aspect of the matter. But then there is the other
+side&mdash;the question of social reform in this country. Now here again we
+differ from the Cobdenite. The Cobdenite is an individualist. He
+believes that private enterprise, working under a system of unfettered
+competition, with cheapness as its supreme object, is the surest road
+to universal well-being. The Tariff Reformer also believes in private
+enterprise, but he does not believe that the mere blind struggle for
+individual gain is going to produce the most beneficent results. He
+does not believe in cheapness if it is the result of sweating or of
+underpaid labour. He keeps before him as the main object of all
+domestic policy the gradual, steady elevation of the standard of life
+throughout <a name="Page_65"></a>the community; and he believes that the action of the
+State deliberately directed to the encouragement of British industry,
+not merely by tariffs, is part and parcel of any sound national policy
+and of true Imperialism. And please observe that in a number of cases
+the Radical party itself has abandoned Cobdenism. Pure individualism
+went to the wall in the Factory Acts, and it is going to the wall
+every day in our domestic legislation. It is solely with regard to
+this matter of imports that the Radical party still cling to the
+Cobdenite doctrine, and the consequence is that their policy has
+become a mass of inconsistencies. It is devoid of any logical
+foundation whatever.</p>
+
+<p>I know that there are many people, sound Unionists at heart, who still
+have a difficulty about accepting the doctrines of the Tariff
+Reformers. My belief is that, if they could only look at the matter
+from the broad national and Imperial point of view, they would come to
+alter their convictions. I am not advocating Tariff Reform as in
+itself the greatest of human objects. But it seems to me the key <a name="Page_66"></a>of
+the position. It seems to me that, without it, we can neither take the
+first steps towards drawing closer the bonds between the mother
+country and the great self-governing States of the Empire; nor
+maintain the prosperity of the British worker in face of unfair
+foreign competition; nor obtain that large and elastic revenue which
+is absolutely essential, if we are going to pursue a policy of social
+reform and mean real business. I cannot but hope that many of those
+who still shy at Tariff Reform, when they come to look at it from this
+point of view&mdash;to see it as I see it, not as an isolated thing, but as
+an essential and necessary part of a comprehensive national
+policy&mdash;will rally to our cause. I have travelled along that road
+myself. I have been a Cobdenite myself&mdash;I am not ashamed of it. But I
+have come to see that the doctrine of free imports&mdash;the religion of
+free imports, I ought to say&mdash;as it is practised in this country
+to-day, is inconsistent with social reform, inconsistent with fair
+play to British industry, and inconsistent with the development and
+consolidation of the Empire. And therefore I rejoice that, in the
+<a name="Page_67"></a>really great speech which he delivered last night, the leader of the
+Unionist party has once more unhesitatingly affirmed his adhesion to
+the principles which I have been trying, in my feebler way, to
+advocate here this evening. My own conviction is that, when these
+principles are understood in all their bearings, they will command the
+approval of the mass of the people. And even in Scotland, where I dare
+say it is a very uphill fight, I look forward with confidence to their
+ultimate victory. Do not let us be discouraged if the fight is long
+and the progress slow. The great permanent influences are on our side.
+On the one hand there is the growth of the Empire, with all the
+opportunities which it affords; on the other there is the increasing
+determination of foreign nations to keep their business to themselves.
+These potent facts, which have already converted so many leading
+minds, will in due time make themselves felt in ever-widening circles.
+And they will not fail to produce their effect upon the shrewd
+practical sense of the Scottish people, especially when combined with
+an appeal to the patriotic <a name="Page_68"></a>instincts of a race which has done so much
+to make the Empire what it is, and which has such a supreme interest
+in its maintenance and consolidation.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Social"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_69"></a>UNIONISTS AND SOCIAL REFORM<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>Rugby, November 19, 1907</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>There has been such a deluge of talk during the last three weeks that
+I doubt whether it is possible for me, or any man, to make a further
+contribution to the discussion which will have any freshness or value.
+But inasmuch as you probably do not all read all the speeches, you may
+perhaps be willing to hear from me a condensed summary of what it all
+comes to&mdash;of course, from my point of view, which no doubt is not
+quite the same as that of the Prime Minister or Mr. Asquith. Now, from
+my point of view, there has been a considerable clearing of the air,
+and we ought all to be in a position to take a more practical and less
+exaggerated view of the situation. Speaking as a Tariff Reformer, I
+think that those people, <a name="Page_70"></a>with whom Tariff Reformers agree on almost
+all other political questions, but who are strongly and
+conscientiously opposed to anything like what they call tampering with
+our fiscal system, must by now understand a little better than they
+did before what Tariff Reformers really aim at, and must begin to see
+that there is nothing so very monstrous or revolutionary about our
+proposals. I hope they may also begin to see why it is that Tariff
+Reformers are so persistent and so insistent upon their own particular
+view. There is something very attractive in the argument which says
+that, since Tariff Reform is a stumbling-block to many good Unionists,
+it should be dropped, and our ranks closed in defence of an effective
+Second Chamber, and in defence of all our institutions against
+revolutionary attacks directed upon the existing order of society. In
+so far as this is an argument for tolerance and against
+excommunicating people because they do not agree with me about Tariff
+Reform, I am entirely in accord with it. I am only a convert to Tariff
+Reform myself, although I am not a very recent convert, for at the
+<a name="Page_71"></a>beginning of 1903, at Bloemfontein, I was instrumental in inducing all
+the South African Colonies to give a substantial preference to goods
+of British origin. I was instrumental in doing that some months before
+the great Tariff Reform campaign was inaugurated in this country by
+its leading champion, Mr. Chamberlain. But while I am all for personal
+tolerance, I am opposed to any compromise on the question of
+principle. I am not opposed to it from any perverseness or any
+obstinacy. I am opposed to it because I see clearly that dropping
+Tariff Reform will knock the bottom out of a policy which I believe is
+not only right in itself, but is the only effective defence of the
+Union and of many other things which are very dear to us&mdash;I mean a
+policy of constructive Imperialism, and of steady, consistent,
+unhasting, and unresting Social Reform.</p>
+
+<p>I have never advocated Tariff Reform as a nostrum or as a panacea. I
+have never pretended that it is by itself alone sufficient to cure all
+the evils inherent in our social system, or alone sufficient as a bond
+of Empire. What I contend is that without it, without recovering <a name="Page_72"></a>our
+fiscal freedom, without recovering the power to deal with Customs
+Duties in accordance with the conditions of the present time and not
+the conditions of fifty years ago, we cannot carry out any of those
+measures which it is most necessary that we should carry out. Without
+it we are unable to defend ourselves against illegitimate foreign
+competition; we are unable to enter into those trade arrangements with
+the great self-governing States of the British Crown across the seas,
+which are calculated to bestow the most far-reaching benefits upon
+them and upon us; and we are unable to obtain the revenue which is
+required for a policy of progressive Social Reform. I hope that people
+otherwise in agreement with us, who have hitherto not seen their way
+to get over their objections to Tariff Reform, will, nevertheless,
+find themselves able to accept that principle, when they regard it,
+not as an isolated thing, but as an essential part of a great national
+and Imperial policy.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, they will have to see it as it is, and not as it is
+represented by its opponents. The opponents of Tariff Reform have a
+very <a name="Page_73"></a>easy method of arguing with its supporters. They say that any
+departure whatsoever from our present fiscal system necessarily
+involves taxing raw materials, and must necessarily result in high and
+prohibitive duties, which will upset our foreign trade, and will be
+ruinous and disorganising to the whole business of the country. But
+Tariff Reformers are not going to frame their duties in order to suit
+the argumentative convenience of Mr. Asquith. They are going to be
+guided by wholly different considerations from that. It is curious
+that everybody opposed to Tariff Reform says that Tariff Reformers
+intend to tax raw material, while Tariff Reformers themselves have
+steadily said they do not. I ask you in that respect to take the
+description of a policy of Tariff Reform from those who advocate it,
+and not from those who oppose it. And as for the argument about high
+prohibitive duties, I wish people would read the reports or summaries
+of the reports of the Tariff Commission. They contain not only the
+most valuable collection that exists anywhere of the present facts
+about almost every branch of British industry but they are <a name="Page_74"></a>also an
+authoritative source from which to draw inferences as to the
+intentions of Tariff Reformers. Now the Tariff Reform Commission have
+not attempted to frame a complete tariff, a scale of duties for all
+articles imported into this country, and wisely, because, if they had
+tried to do that, people would have said that they were arrogating to
+themselves the duties of Parliament. What they have done is to show by
+a few instances that a policy of Tariff Reform is not a thing in the
+air, not a mere thing of phrases and catchwords, but is a practical,
+businesslike working policy. They have drawn up what may be called
+experimental scales of duties, which are merely suggestions for
+consideration, with respect to a number of articles under the
+principal heads of British imports, such as, for instance,
+agricultural imports and imports of iron and steel. These experimental
+duties vary on the average from something like 5 per cent. to 10 per
+cent. on the value of the articles. In no one case in my recollection
+do they exceed 10 per cent.</p>
+
+<p>But then the opponents of Tariff Reform say: &quot;Yes. That is all very
+well. But though you <a name="Page_75"></a>may begin with moderate duties, you are bound to
+proceed to higher ones. It is in the nature of things that you should
+go on increasing and increasing, and in the end we shall all be
+ruined.&quot; I must say that seems to me great nonsense. It reminds me of
+nothing so much as the fearful warnings which I have read in the least
+judicious sort of temperance literature, and sometimes heard from
+temperance orators of the more extreme type&mdash;the sort of warning, I
+mean, that, if you once begin touching anything stronger than water,
+you are bound to go on till you end by beating your wife and die in a
+workhouse. But you and I know perfectly well that it is possible to
+have an occasional glass of beer or glass of wine, or even, low be it
+spoken, a little whisky, without beating or wanting to beat anybody,
+and without coming to such a terrible end. The argument against the
+use of anything from its abuse has always struck me as one of the
+feeblest of arguments. And just see how particularly absurd it is in
+the present case. The effect of duties on foreign imports, even such
+moderate and carefully devised duties as those to which I <a name="Page_76"></a>have
+referred, would, we are told, be ruinous to British trade. It would
+place intolerable burdens upon the people. Yet for all that the people
+would, it appears, insist on increasing these burdens. Surely it is as
+clear as a pike-staff that, if the duties which Tariff Reformers
+advocate were to produce the evils which Free Importers allege that
+they would produce, these duties, so far from being inevitably
+maintained and increased, would not survive one General Election after
+their imposition.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only with regard to Tariff Reform that I think the air is
+clearer. The Unionist Party has to my mind escaped another danger
+which was quite as great as that of allowing the Tariff question to be
+pushed on one side, and that was the danger of being frightened by the
+scare, which the noisy spreading of certain subversive doctrines has
+lately caused, into a purely negative and defensive attitude; of
+ceasing to be, as it has been, a popular and progressive party, and
+becoming merely the embodiment of upper and middle class prejudices
+and alarms. I do not say that there are not many projects in the air
+which are calculated to excite alarm, but <a name="Page_77"></a>they can only be
+successfully resisted on frankly democratic and popular lines. My own
+feeling is&mdash;I may be quite wrong, but I state my opinion for what it
+is worth&mdash;that there is far less danger of the democracy going wrong
+about domestic questions than there is of its going wrong about
+foreign and Imperial questions, and for this simple reason, that with
+regard to domestic questions they have their own sense and experience
+to guide them.</p>
+
+<p>If a mistake is made in domestic policy its consequences are rapidly
+felt, and no amount of fine talking will induce people to persist in
+courses which are affecting them injuriously in their daily lives. You
+have thus a constant and effective check upon those who are disposed
+to try dangerous experiments, or to go too fast even on lines which
+may be in themselves laudable, as the experience of recent municipal
+elections, among other things, clearly shows. But with regard to
+Imperial questions, to our great and vital interests in distant parts
+of the earth, there is necessarily neither the same amount of personal
+knowledge on the part of the electorate, nor do the consequences <a name="Page_78"></a>of a
+mistaken policy recoil so directly and so unmistakably upon them.
+These subjects, therefore, are the happy hunting-ground of the
+visionary and the phrase-maker. I have seen the people of this country
+talked into a policy with regard to South Africa at once so injurious
+to their own interests, and so base towards those who had thrown in
+their lot with us and trusted us, that, if the British nation had only
+known what that policy really meant, they would have spat it out of
+their mouths. And I tremble every day lest, on the vital question of
+Defence, the pressure of well-meaning but ignorant idealists, or the
+meaner influence of vote-catching demagogues, should lead this
+Government or, indeed, any Government, to curtail the provisions,
+already none too ample, for the safety of the Empire, in order to pose
+as the friends of peace or as special adepts in economy. I know these
+savings of a million or two a year over say five or ten years, which
+cost you fifty or one hundred millions, wasted through unreadiness
+when the crisis comes, to say nothing of the waste of gallant lives
+even more precious. This is the <a name="Page_79"></a>kind of question about which the
+democracy is liable to be misled, being without the corrective of
+direct personal contact with the facts to keep it straight. And it is
+unpopular and up-hill work to go on reminding people of the vastness
+of the duty and the responsibility which the control of so great a
+portion of the earth's surface, with a dependent population of three
+or four hundred millions, necessarily involves; to go on reminding
+them, too, how their own prosperity and even existence in these
+islands are linked by a hundred subtle but not always obvious or
+superficially apparent threads with the maintenance of those great
+external possessions.</p>
+
+<p>I say these are difficulties which any party or any man, who is
+prepared to do his duty by the electorate of this country, not merely
+to ingratiate himself with them for the moment, but to win their
+confidence by deserving it, by telling them the truth, by serving
+their permanent interests and not their passing moods, is bound to
+face. For my own part, I have always been perfectly frank on these
+questions. I have maintained on many platforms, I am prepared to
+maintain here to-night and shall always <a name="Page_80"></a>maintain, although this is a
+subject on which it may be long before my views are included in any
+party programme&mdash;I say I shall always maintain that real security is
+not possible without citizen service, and that the training of every
+able-bodied man to be capable of taking part, if need be, in the
+defence of his country, is not only good for the country but good for
+the man&mdash;and would materially assist in the solution of many other
+problems, social and economic. But being, as I am, thus
+uncompromising, and quite prepared to find myself unpopular, on these
+vital questions of national security, and of our Imperial duties and
+responsibilities, I can perhaps afford to say, without being suspected
+of fawning or of wishing to play the demagogue myself, that in the
+matter of domestic reform I am not easy to frighten, and that I have a
+very great trust in the essential fair-mindedness and good sense of
+the great body of my fellow countrymen with regard to questions which
+come within their own direct cognisance. And therefore it was most
+reassuring to me at any rate&mdash;and I hope it was to you&mdash;to observe,
+that that large section <a name="Page_81"></a>of the Unionist Party which met at Birmingham
+last week, not so much by any resolutions or formal programme&mdash;for
+there was nothing very novel in these&mdash;as by the whole tone and temper
+of its proceedings, affirmed in the most emphatic manner the
+essentially progressive and democratic character of Unionism. The
+greatest danger I hold to the Unionist Party and to the nation is that
+the ideals of national strength and Imperial consolidation on the one
+hand, and of democratic progress and domestic reform on the other,
+should be dissevered, and that people should come to regard as
+antagonistic objects which are essentially related and complementary
+to one another. The upholders of the Union, the upholders of the
+Empire, the upholders of the fundamental institutions of the State,
+must not only be, but must be seen and known to be, the strenuous and
+constant assailants of those two great related curses of our social
+system&mdash;irregular employment and unhealthy conditions of life&mdash;and of
+all the various causes which lead to them.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot stay here to enumerate those causes, <a name="Page_82"></a>but I will mention a
+few of them. There is the defective training of children, defective
+physical training to begin with, and then the failure to equip them
+with any particular and definite form of skill. There is the irregular
+way in which new centres of population are allowed to spring up, so
+that we go on creating fresh slums as fast as we pull down the old
+rookeries. There is the depopulation of the countryside, and the
+influx of foreign paupers into our already overcrowded towns. There is
+the undermining of old-established and valuable British industries by
+unfair foreign competition. That is not an exhaustive list, but it is
+sufficient to illustrate my meaning. Well, wherever these and similar
+evils are eating away the health and independence of our working
+people, there the foundations of the Empire are being undermined, for
+it is the race that makes the Empire. Loud is the call to every true
+Unionist, to every true Imperialist, to come to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>And now at the risk of wearying you there is one other subject to
+which I would like specially to refer, lest I should be accused of
+deliberately <a name="Page_83"></a>giving it the go-by, and that is the question of old age
+pensions. It is not a reform altogether of the same nature as those on
+which I have been dwelling, nor is it perhaps the kind of reform about
+which I feel the greatest enthusiasm, because I would rather attack
+the causes, which lead to that irregularity of employment and that
+under-payment which prevents people from providing for their own old
+age themselves, than merely remedy the evils arising from it. But I
+accept the fact that under present conditions, which it may be that a
+progressive policy in time will alter, a sufficient case for State aid
+in the matter of old age pensions has been made out, and I believe
+that no party is going to oppose the introduction of old age pensions.
+But, on the other hand, I foresee great difficulties and great
+disputes over the question of the manner in which the money is to be
+provided. I know how our Radical friends will wish to provide the
+money. They will want to get it, in the first instance, by starving
+the Army and the Navy. To that way of providing it I hope the Unionist
+Party, however unpopular such a course may be, and <a name="Page_84"></a>however liable to
+misrepresentation it may be, will oppose an iron resistance, because
+this is an utterly rotten and bad way of financing old age pensions,
+or anything else. But that method alone, however far it is carried,
+will not provide money enough, and there will be an attempt to raise
+the rest by taxes levied exclusively on the rich. I am against that
+also, because it is thoroughly wrong in principle. I am not against
+making the rich pay, to the full extent of their capacity, for great
+national purposes, even for national purposes in which they have no
+direct interest. But I am not prepared to see them made to pay
+exclusively. Let all pay according to their means. It is a thoroughly
+vicious idea that money should be taken out of the pocket of one man,
+however rich, in order to be put into the pocket of another, however
+poor. That is a bad, anti-national principle, and I hope the
+Unionist Party will take a firm stand against it. And this is an
+additional reason why we should raise whatever money may be necessary
+by duties upon foreign imports, because in that way all will
+contribute. No doubt the rich will contribute the bulk of the money
+through <a name="Page_85"></a>the duties on imported luxuries, but there will be some
+contribution, as there ought to be some contribution, from every class
+of the people.</p>
+
+<p>And now, in conclusion, one word about purely practical
+considerations. We Unionists, if you will allow me to call myself a
+Unionist&mdash;at any rate I have explained quite frankly what I mean by
+the term&mdash;are not a class party, but a national party. That being so,
+it is surely of the utmost importance that men of all classes should
+participate in every branch and every grade of the work of the
+Unionist Party. Why should we not have Unionist Labour members as well
+as Radical Labour members? I think that the working classes of this
+country are misrepresented in the eyes of the public of this country
+and of the world, as long as they appear to have no leaders in
+Parliament except the men who concoct and pass those machine-made
+resolutions with which we are so familiar in the reports of Trade
+Union Congresses. I am not speaking now about their resolutions on
+trade questions, which they thoroughly understand, but about
+resolutions on such subjects as foreign politics, the Army and Navy,
+and <a name="Page_86"></a>Colonial and Imperial questions, resolutions which are always
+upon the same monotonous lines. I do not believe that the working
+classes are the unpatriotic, anti-national, down-with-the-army,
+up-with-the-foreigner, take-it-lying-down class of Little Englanders
+that they are constantly represented to be. I do not believe it for a
+moment. I have heard Imperial questions discussed by working men in
+excellent speeches, not only eloquent speeches, but speeches showing a
+broad grasp and a truly Imperial spirit, and I should like speeches of
+that kind to be heard in the House of Commons as an antidote to the
+sort of preaching which we get from the present Labour members. And
+what I say about the higher posts in the Unionist Army applies equally
+to all other ranks. No Unionist member or Unionist candidate is really
+well served unless he has a number of men of the working class on what
+I may call his political staff. And I say this not merely for
+electioneering reasons. This is just one of the cases in which
+considerations of party interest coincide&mdash;I wish they always or often
+did&mdash;with considerations of a higher <a name="Page_87"></a>character. There is nothing more
+calculated to remove class prejudice and antagonism than the
+co-operation of men of different classes on the same body for the same
+public end. And there is this about the aims of Unionism, that they
+are best calculated to teach the value of such co-operation; to bring
+home to men of all classes their essential inter-dependence on one
+another, as well as to bring home to each individual the pettiness and
+meanness of personal vanity and ambition in the presence of anything
+so great, so stately, as the common heritage and traditions of the
+British race.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Sweated"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_88"></a>SWEATED INDUSTRIES<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>Oxford, December 5, 1907</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>This exhibition is one of a series which are being held in different
+parts of the country with the object of directing attention, or rather
+of keeping it directed, to the conditions under which a number of
+articles, many of them articles of primary necessity, are at present
+being produced, and with the object also of improving the lot of the
+people engaged in the production of those articles. Now this matter is
+one of great national importance, because the sweated workers are
+numbered by hundreds of thousands, and because their poverty and the
+resulting evils affect many beside themselves, and exercise a
+depressing influence on large classes of the community. What do we
+mean by sweating? I will give you a definition laid down by a
+Parliamentary <a name="Page_89"></a>Committee, which made a most exhaustive inquiry into
+the subject: &quot;Unduly low rates of wages, excessive hours of work, and
+insanitary condition of the workplaces.&quot; You may say that this is a
+state of things against which our instincts of humanity and charity
+revolt. And that is perfectly true, but I do not propose to approach
+the question from that point of view to-day. I want to approach it
+from the economic and political standpoint. But when I say political I
+do not mean it in any party sense. This is not a party question; may
+it never become one. The organisers of this exhibition have done what
+lay in their power to prevent the blighting and corrosive influence of
+party from being extended to it. The fact that the position which I
+occupy at this moment will be occupied to-morrow by the wife of a
+distinguished member of the present Government (Mrs. Herbert
+Gladstone), and on Saturday by a leading member of the Labour Party
+(Mr. G.N. Barnes, M.P.), shows that this is a cause in which people of
+all parties can co-operate. The more we deal with sweating on these
+lines, the more we deal with it on its merits or <a name="Page_90"></a>demerits without
+ulterior motive, the more likely we shall be to make a beginning in
+the removal of those evils against which our crusade is directed.</p>
+
+<p>My view is, that the sweating system impoverishes and weakens the
+whole community, because it saps the stamina and diminishes the
+productive power of thousands of workers, and these in their turn drag
+others down with them. &quot;Unduly low rates of wages, excessive hours of
+labour, insanitary condition of workplaces&quot;&mdash;what does all that mean?
+It means an industry essentially rotten and unsound. To say that the
+labourer is worthy of his hire is not only the expression of a natural
+instinct of justice, but it embodies an economic truth. One does not
+need to be a Socialist, not, at least, a Socialist in the sense in
+which the word is ordinarily used, as designating a man who desires
+that all instruments of production should become common property&mdash;one
+does not need to be a Socialist in that sense in order to realise that
+an industry, which does not provide those engaged in it with
+sufficient to keep them in health is essentially unsound. Used-up
+capital <a name="Page_91"></a>must be replaced, and of all forms of capital the most
+fundamental and indispensable is the human energy necessarily consumed
+in the work of production. A sweated industry does not provide for the
+replacing of that kind of capital. It squanders its human material. It
+consumes more energy in the work it exacts than the remuneration it
+gives is capable of replacing. The workers in sweated industries are
+not able to live on their wages. As it is, they live miserably, grow
+old too soon, and bring up sickly children. But they would not live at
+all, were it not for the fact that their inadequate wages are
+supplemented, directly, in many cases, by out-relief, and indirectly
+by numerous forms of charity. In one way or another the community has
+to make good the inefficiency that sweating produces. In one way or
+another the community ultimately pays, and it is my firm belief that
+it pays far more in the long run under the present system than if all
+workers were self-supporting. If a true account could be kept, it
+would be found that anything which the community gains by the
+cheapness of articles produced under the sweating system is <a name="Page_92"></a>more than
+outweighed by the indirect loss involved in the inevitable subsidising
+of a sweated industry. That would be found to be the result, even if
+no account were taken of the greatest loss of all, the loss arising
+from the inefficiency of the sweated workers and of their children,
+for sweating is calculated to perpetuate inefficiency and
+degeneration.</p>
+
+<p>The question is: Can anything be done? Of the three related
+evils&mdash;unduly low rates of wages, excessive hours of labour, and
+insanitary condition of work-places&mdash;it is evident that the first
+applies equally to sweated workers in factories and at home, but the
+two others are to some extent guarded against, in factories, by
+existing legislation. This is the reason why some people would like to
+see all work done for wages transferred to factories. Broadly
+speaking, I sympathise with that view. But if it were universally
+carried out at the present moment, it would inflict an enormous amount
+of suffering and injustice on those who add to their incomes by home
+work. Hence the problem is twofold. First, can we extend to workers in
+their own homes that degree or protection in respect <a name="Page_93"></a>of hours and
+sanitary conditions which the law already gives to workers in
+factories? And secondly, can we do anything to obtain for sweated
+workers, whether in homes or factories, rates of remuneration less
+palpably inadequate? Now it certainly seems impossible to limit the
+hours of workers, especially adult workers, in their own homes. More
+can be done to ensure sanitary conditions of work. Much has been done
+already, so far as the structural condition of dwellings is concerned.
+But I am afraid that the measures necessary to introduce what may be
+called the factory standard of sanitariness into every room, where
+work is being done for wages, would involve an amount of inspection
+and interference with the domestic lives of hundreds of thousands of
+people which might create such unpopularity as to defeat its own
+object. I do not say that nothing more should be attempted in that
+direction, quite the reverse; but I say that nothing which can be
+attempted in that direction really goes to the root of the evil, which
+is the insufficiency of the wage. How can you possibly make it healthy
+for a woman, living in a single room, perhaps with <a name="Page_94"></a>children, but even
+without, to work twelve or fourteen hours a day for seven or eight
+shillings a week, and at the same time to do her own cooking, washing,
+and so on. How much food is she likely to have? How much time will be
+hers to keep the place clean and tidy? An increase of wages would not
+make sanitary regulations unnecessary, but it would make their
+observance more possible.</p>
+
+<p>An increase of wages then is the primary condition of any real
+improvement in the lives of the sweated workers. So the point is this.
+Can we do anything by law to screw up the remuneration of the
+worst-paid workers to the minimum necessary for tolerable human
+existence? I know that many people think it impossible, but my answer
+is that the fixing of a limit below which wages shall not fall is
+already not the exception but the rule in this country. That may seem
+a rather startling statement, but I believe I can prove it. Take the
+case of the State, the greatest of all employers. The State does not
+allow the rates of pay even of its humblest employ&eacute;s to be decided by
+the scramble for employment. <a name="Page_95"></a>The State cannot afford, nor can any
+great municipality afford, to pay wages on which it is obviously
+impossible to live. There would be an immediate outcry. Here then you
+have a case of vast extent in which a downward limit of wages is fixed
+by public opinion. Take, again, any of the great staple industries of
+the country, the cotton industry, the iron and steel industry, and
+many others. In the case of these industries rates of remuneration are
+fixed in innumerable instances by agreement between the whole body of
+employers in a particular trade and district on the one hand and the
+whole body of employ&eacute;s on the other. The result is to exclude
+unregulated competition and to secure the same wages for the same
+work. No doubt there is an element&mdash;and this is a point of great
+importance&mdash;which enters into the determination of wages in these
+organised trades, but which does not enter in the same degree into the
+determination of the salaries paid by the State. That element is the
+consideration of what the employers can afford to pay. This question
+is constantly being threshed out between them and the <a name="Page_96"></a>workpeople,
+with resulting agreements. The number of such agreements is very
+large, and the provisions contained in them often regulate the rate of
+remuneration for various classes of workers with the greatest
+minuteness. But the great object, and the principal effect of all
+these agreements, is this: it is to ensure uniformity of remuneration,
+the same wage for the same work, and to protect the most necessitous
+and most helpless workers from being forced to take less than the
+employers can afford to pay. Broadly speaking, the rate of pay, in
+these highly organised industries, is determined by the value of the
+work and not by the need of the worker. That makes an enormous
+difference. But in sweated industries this is not the case. Sweated
+industries are the unorganised industries, those in which there is no
+possibility of organisation among the workers. Here the individual
+worker, without resources and without backing, is left, in the
+struggle of unregulated competition, to take whatever he can get,
+regardless of what others may be getting for the same work and-of the
+value of the work itself. Hence the <a name="Page_97"></a>extraordinary inequality of
+payment for the same kind of work and the generally low average of
+payment which are the distinguishing features of all sweated
+industries.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if you have followed this rather dry argument, I shall probably
+have your concurrence when I say, that the proposal that the State
+should intervene to secure, not an all-round minimum wage, but the
+same wages for the same work, and nothing less than the standard rate
+of his particular work for every worker, is not a proposition that the
+State should do something new, or exceptional, or impracticable. It is
+a proposal that the State should do for the weakest and most helpless
+trades what the strongly-organised trades already do for themselves. I
+cannot see that there is anything unreasonable, much less
+revolutionary or subversive, in that suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>This proposal has taken practical form in a Bill presented to the
+House of Commons last session. Whether the measure reached its second
+reading or not I do not know. It was a Bill for the establishment of
+Wages Boards in certain industries employing great numbers <a name="Page_98"></a>of
+workpeople, such as tailoring, shirtmaking, and so on. The industries
+selected were those in which the employ&eacute;s, though numerous, are
+hopelessly disorganised and unable to make a bargain for themselves.
+And the Bill provided that where any six persons, whether masters or
+employ&eacute;s, applied to the Home Secretary for the establishment of a
+Wages Board, such a Board should be created in the particular industry
+and district concerned; that it should consist of representatives of
+employers and employed in equal proportions, with an impartial
+chairman; and that it should have the widest possible discretion to
+fix rates of remuneration. If Wages Boards were established, as the
+Bill proposed, they would simply do for sweated trades what is already
+constantly being done in organised trades, with no doubt one important
+difference, that the decisions of these Boards would be enforceable by
+law. Now that no doubt may seem to many of you a drastic proposition.
+But I would strongly recommend any one interested in the subject to
+study a recently-published Blue-book, one of the most interesting I
+have ever read, which contains the <a name="Page_99"></a>evidence given before the House of
+Commons Committee on Home Work. That Blue-book throws floods of light
+on the conditions which have led to the proposal of Wages Boards, on
+the way in which these Boards would be likely to work, and on the
+results of the operation of such Boards in the Colony of Victoria,
+where they have existed for more than ten years, and now apply to more
+than forty industries. The perusal of that evidence would, I feel
+sure, remove some at least of the most obvious objections to this
+proposed remedy for sweating.</p>
+
+<p>Many people look askance, and justly look askance, at the interference
+of the State in anything so complicated and technical as a schedule of
+wages for any particular industry. But the point to bear in mind is
+this, that the wages, which under this proposal would be enforceable
+by law, would be wages that had been fixed for a particular industry
+in a particular district by persons intimately cognisant with all the
+circumstances, and, more than that, by persons having the deepest
+common interest to avoid anything which could injure the industry. The
+rates of remuneration <a name="Page_100"></a>so arrived at would be based on the
+consideration of what the employers could afford to pay and yet retain
+such a reasonable rate of profit as would lead to their remaining in
+the industry. Such a regulation of wages would be as great a
+protection to the best employers against the cut-throat competition of
+unscrupulous rivals as it would be to the workers against being
+compelled to sell their labour for less than its value. There is
+plenty of evidence that the regulation of wages would be welcomed by
+many employers. And as for the fear sometimes expressed, that it would
+injure the weakest and least efficient workers, because, with
+increased wages, it would no longer be profitable to employ them, it
+must be borne in mind that people of that class are mainly home
+workers, and as remuneration for home work must be based on the piece,
+there would be no reason why they should not continue to be employed.
+No doubt they would not benefit as much as more efficient workers from
+increased rates, but <i>pro tanto</i> they would still benefit, and that is
+a consideration of great importance. But even if this were not the
+case, I would still contend, that it was <a name="Page_101"></a>unjustifiable to allow
+thousands of people to remain in a preventable state of misery and
+degradation all their lives, merely in order to keep a tenth of their
+number out of the workhouse a few years longer.</p>
+
+<p>I have only one more word to say. I come back to the supreme interest
+of the community in the efficiency and welfare of all its members, to
+say nothing of the removal of the stain upon its honour and conscience
+which continued tolerance of this evil involves. That to my mind is
+the greatest consideration of all. That is the true reason, as it
+would be the sufficient justification, for the intervention of the
+State. And, or my own part, I feel no doubt that, whether by the
+adoption of such a measure as we have been considering, or by some
+other enactment, steps will before long be taken for the removal of
+this national disgrace.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<h5>Printed by BALLANTYNE &amp; CO. LIMITED<br />
+Tavistock Street, London</h5>
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<a name="Page_i"></a>
+<a name="Page_ii"></a>
+
+<h2>The <br />Fundamental Fallacies <br />of Free Trade</h2>
+
+<h2>By L.S. AMERY</h2>
+
+<h5>(FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD)</h5>
+
+<h3><i><b>Price 2s. net.</b></i></h3>
+<br />
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p class="noin">These &quot;Four Addresses on the Logical Groundwork of the Free Trade
+Theory,&quot; as they are described by the author on the title-page, are
+nothing less than a frontal attack on the dogmas of the Manchester
+School, as sacrificing the permanent interests of the nation to the
+ephemeral interests of the individual. They are bound on account of
+their originality and ability to provoke considerable controversy, and
+to compel the Cobdenites to make some attempt at an answer. The
+chapters are successively entitled &quot;The Individualist Fallacy,&quot; &quot;The
+Capitalist Fallacy,&quot; &quot;The Trade Fallacy,&quot; and &quot;Free Trade Psychology
+and Free Trade History.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This is essentially a book to be read, marked, learned, and inwardly
+digested by all serious students of public affairs.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+
+<h4>THE &quot;NATIONAL REVIEW&quot; OFFICE<br />
+23 RYDER STREET, ST. JAMES'S, LONDON, S.W.</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<a name="Page_iii"></a>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="advertisement">
+ <tr>
+  <td valign="top" class="tdl" width="25%"
+   style="border: solid 1px; padding: .5em; margin-right: 1em; margin-left: 1em; border-color: #808080; height: 22em;">
+    <p class="cen">The<br /> OUTLOOK<br /> says:</p>
+    <p>&quot;Its pages are packed with vital writing ... foreign and
+       domestic affairs are discussed with masculine ability and
+       vigour ... a monthly survey of Imperial affairs such as no
+       other publication offers.&quot; </p><br /><br /><br /><br />
+  </td>
+  <td valign="top" class="tdc" width="50%" style="border-top: hidden;">
+    <br />
+    <span class="sc">THE</span><br />
+    <span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold;">NATIONAL<br />
+    REVIEW</span><br />
+    <br />
+    <span class="sc">Edited by</span> L.J. MAXSE<br />
+    <br />
+    <b>Price 2s. 6d. net</b><br />
+    <b>Monthly</b><br />
+    <br />
+    <br />
+    Established 24 Years<br />
+  </td>
+  <td valign="top" class="tdr" width="25%"
+    style="border: solid 1px; padding: .5em; margin-right: 1em; margin-left: 1em; border-color: #808080; height: 22em;">
+    <p class="cen">The<br /> SPECTATOR<br /> says:</p>
+    <p style="font-size: 80%;">&quot;We do not hesitate to say that the 'National's Episodes'
+     are among the most brilliant, if, indeed, not the most
+     brilliant, contributions to modern political journalism.
+     Their verve, their fearlessness, their independence, and
+     their sincerity would alone render them remarkable; but in
+     addition they are written in a style as clear and buoyant as
+     it is picturesque and unconventional.&quot; </p>
+  </td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+
+<div style="margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;">
+<p class="cen"><i>Distinctive Features of the &quot;National Review&quot;</i></p>
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold;">&quot;EPISODES OF THE MONTH&quot;</span><br />
+An incisive commentary on Home and Foreign Affairs</p>
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold;">&quot;AMERICAN AFFAIRS&quot;</span><br />
+By <span class="sc">A. Maurice Low</span><br />
+An indispensable guide to American Politics</p>
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold;">&quot;GREATER BRITAIN AND INDIA&quot;</span><br />
+An invaluable review of Imperial events</p>
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold;">POLICY OF THE &quot;NATIONAL REVIEW&quot;</span><br />
+To discuss each subject on its merits from the national standpoint
+without fear, favour, or partisan bias</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+   <div class="centered">
+   <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="90%" summary="advertisement2">
+    <tr>
+     <td class="tdl" width="45%">
+       <div style="border: solid 1px; padding: .5em; margin-right: 1%; margin-left: 1%; border-color: #808080;">
+       <p class="noin">To those who wish to become acquainted with the &quot;National Review,&quot; a
+       specimen copy will be sent, post free, on application to the Manager.</p>
+       </div>
+     </td>
+     <td width="10%">&nbsp;</td>
+     <td class="tdc" width="45%" style="font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold;">23 RYDER STREET,<br />
+       ST. JAMES'S,<br />LONDON, S.W.<br />
+     </td>
+    </tr>
+   </table>
+   </div>
+
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Constructive Imperialism, by Viscount Milner
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSTRUCTIVE IMPERIALISM ***
+
+***** This file should be named 15681-h.htm or 15681-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/8/15681/
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading (https://www.pgdp.net).
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+
+
diff --git a/15681.txt b/15681.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fce347
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15681.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2195 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Constructive Imperialism, by Viscount Milner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Constructive Imperialism
+
+Author: Viscount Milner
+
+Release Date: April 22, 2005 [EBook #15681]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSTRUCTIVE IMPERIALISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading (https://www.pgdp.net).
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Two advertisements from the beginning of the book
+have been moved to the end.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+      CONSTRUCTIVE
+      IMPERIALISM
+
+      BY
+
+      VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.
+
+      FIVE SPEECHES
+
+      DELIVERED AT
+      TUNBRIDGE WELLS (OCTOBER 24, 1907)
+      GUILDFORD (OCTOBER 29, 1907)
+      EDINBURGH (NOVEMBER 15, 1907)
+      RUGBY (NOVEMBER 19, 1907)
+      AND OXFORD (DECEMBER 5, 1907)
+
+
+      LONDON
+      THE NATIONAL REVIEW OFFICE
+      23 RYDER STREET, ST. JAMES'S
+      1908
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                        PAGE
+
+TARIFF REFORM (TUNBRIDGE WELLS)                            7
+
+A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY (GUILDFORD)                         34
+
+UNIONISTS AND THE EMPIRE (EDINBURGH)                      50
+
+UNIONISTS AND SOCIAL REFORM (RUGBY)                       69
+
+SWEATED INDUSTRIES (OXFORD)                               88
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TARIFF REFORM
+
+Tunbridge Wells, October 24, 1907
+
+
+As this is a Tariff Reform meeting pure and simple, I am anxious not
+to approach the subject in any party spirit or in any spirit of
+acrimonious controversy. The question is a difficult and complicated
+one, and though I am a strong Tariff Reformer myself I hope I am not
+incapable of seeing both sides of the case. I certainly should have
+reason to be ashamed if I could not be fair to those whom, for the
+sake of brevity and convenience, I will call Free Traders, though I do
+not altogether admit the correctness of that designation. My views
+were once the same as theirs, and though I long ago felt constrained
+to modify them, and had become a Tariff Reformer some years before the
+subject attained its present prominence in public discussion, it would
+ill become me to treat as foolish arguments which I once found so
+convincing or to vilify opinions which I once honestly shared.
+
+What has happened to me is what I expect has happened to a good many
+people. I still admire the great Free Trade writers, the force of
+their intellect, the lucidity of their arguments. There can be no
+clearer proof of the spell which they exercised over the minds of
+their countrymen than the fact that so many leading public men on both
+sides of politics remain their disciples to this very day. But for my
+own part I have been unable to resist the evidence of facts which
+shows me clearly that in the actual world of trade and industry things
+do not work out even approximately as they ought to work out if the
+Free Trade theory were the counsel of perfection which I once thought
+it. And that has led me to question the theory itself, and so
+questioned it now seems to me far from a correct statement of the
+truth, even from the point of view of abstract inquiry. But I am not
+here to engage in abstract arguments. What I want to do is to look at
+the question from a strictly practical point of view, but at the same
+time a very broad one. I am anxious to bring home to you the place of
+Tariff Reform in a sound national policy, for, indeed, it seems to me
+very difficult to construct such a policy without a complete revision
+of our fiscal arrangements. Now a sound national policy has two
+aspects. There are two great objects of practical patriotism, two
+heads under which you may sum it up, much as the Church Catechism sums
+up practical religion, under the heads of "duty to God" and "duty to
+your neighbour." These objects are the strength of the Empire, and the
+health, the well-being, the contentedness of the mass of the people,
+resting as they always must on steady, properly organised, and fairly
+remunerated labour. Remember always, these two things are one; they
+are inseparable. There can be no adequate prosperity for the forty or
+fifty million people in these islands without the Empire and all that
+it provides; there can be no enduring Empire without a healthy,
+thriving, manly people at the centre. Stunted, overcrowded town
+populations, irregular employment, sweated industries, these things
+are as detestable to true Imperialism as they are to philanthropy,
+and they are detestable to the Tariff Reformer. His aim is to improve
+the condition of the people at home, and to improve it concurrently
+with strengthening the foundations of the Empire. Mind you, I do not
+say that Tariff Reform alone is going to do all this. I make no such
+preposterous claim for it. What I do say is that it fits in better
+alike with a policy of social reform at home and with a policy
+directed to the consolidation of the Empire than our existing fiscal
+system does.
+
+Now, what is the essential difference between Tariff Reformers and the
+advocates of the present system? I must dwell on this even at the risk
+of appearing tiresome, because there is so much misunderstanding on
+the subject. In the eyes of the advocates of the present system, the
+statesman, or at any rate the British statesman, when he approaches
+fiscal policy, is confronted with the choice of Hercules. He is
+placed, like the rider in the old legend, between the black and the
+white horseman. On the one hand is an angel of light called Free
+Trade; on the other a limb of Satan called Protection. The one is
+entirely and always right; the other is entirely and always wrong.
+All fiscal wisdom is summed up in clinging desperately to the one and
+eschewing like sin anything that has the slightest flavour of the
+other. Now, that view has certainly the merit of simplicity, and
+simplicity is a very great thing; but, if we look at history, it does
+not seem quite to bear out this simple view. This country became one
+of the greatest and wealthiest in the world under a system of rigid
+Protection. It has enjoyed great, though by no means unbroken,
+prosperity under Free Trade. Side by side with that system of ours
+other countries have prospered even more under quite different
+systems. These facts alone are sufficient to justify the critical
+spirit, which is the spirit of the Tariff Reformer. He does not
+believe in any absolute right or wrong in such a matter as the
+imposition of duties upon imports. Such duties cannot, he thinks, be
+judged by one single test, namely, whether they do or do not favour
+the home producer, and be condemned out of hand if they do favour him.
+
+The Tariff Reformer rejects this single cast-iron principle. He
+refuses to bow down before it, regardless of changing circumstances,
+regardless of the policy of other countries and of that of the other
+Dominions of the Crown. He wants a free hand in dealing with imports,
+the power to adapt the fiscal policy of this country to the varying
+conditions of trade and to the situation created at any given time by
+the fiscal action of others. He has no superstitious objection to
+using duties either to increase employment at home or to secure
+markets abroad. But on the other hand he does not go blindly for
+duties upon foreign imports as so-called Free Traders go blindly
+against them, except in the case of articles not produced in this
+country, some of which the Free Traders are obliged to tax
+preposterously. Tariff Reform is not one-ideaed, rigid, inelastic, as
+our existing system is. Many people are afraid of it, because they
+think Tariff Reformers want to put duties on foreign goods for the fun
+of the thing, merely for the sake of making them dearer. Certainly
+Tariff Reformers do not think that cheapness is everything. Certainly
+they hold that the blind worship of immediate cheapness may cost the
+nation dear in the long run. But, unless cheapness is due to some
+mischievous cause, they are just as anxious that we should buy cheaply
+as the most ardent Cobdenite, and especially that we should buy
+cheaply what we cannot produce ourselves. Talking of cheapness,
+however, I must make a confession which I hope will not be
+misunderstood by ladies present who are fond of shopping--I wish we
+could get out of the way of discussing national economics so much from
+the shopping point of view. Surely what matters, from the point of
+view of the general well-being, is the productive capacity of the
+people, and the actual amount of their production of articles of
+necessity, use, or beauty. Everything we consume might be cheaper, and
+yet if the total amount of things which were ours to consume was less
+we should be not richer but poorer. It is, I think, one of the first
+duties of Tariff Reformers to keep people's eyes fixed upon this vital
+point--the amount of our national production. It is that which
+constitutes the real income of the nation, on which wages and profits
+alike depend.
+
+And that brings me to another point. Production in this country is
+dependent on importation, more dependent than in most countries. We
+are not self-supplying. We must import from outside these islands vast
+quantities of raw materials and of the necessaries of life. That, at
+least, is common ground between the Free Trader and the Tariff
+Reformer. But the lessons they draw from the fact are somewhat
+different. The Free Trader is only anxious that we should buy all
+these necessary imports as cheaply as possible. The Tariff Reformer is
+also anxious that we should buy them cheaply, but he is even more
+anxious to know how we are going to pay for all this vast quantity of
+things which we are bound to import. And that leads him to two
+conclusions. The first is that, seeing how much we are obliged to buy
+from abroad in any case, he looks rather askance at our increasing our
+indebtedness by buying things which we could quite easily produce at
+home, especially with so many unemployed and half-employed people. The
+other, and this is even a more pressing solicitude to him, is that it
+is of vital importance to us to look after our external markets, to
+make sure that we shall always have customers, and good customers, to
+buy our goods, and so to enable us to pay for our indispensable
+imports. The Free Trader does not share this solicitude. He has got a
+comfortable theory that if you only look after your imports your
+exports will look after themselves. Will they? The Tariff Reformer
+does not agree with that at all. Imports no doubt are paid for by
+exports, but it does not in the least follow that by increasing your
+dependence on others you will necessarily increase their dependence on
+you. It would be much truer to say: "Look after the exports and the
+imports will look after themselves." The more you sell the more you
+will be able to buy, but it does not in the least follow that the more
+you buy the more you will be able to sell. What business man would go
+on the principle of buying as much as possible and say: "Oh, that is
+all right. I am sure to be able to sell enough to pay for it." The
+first thought of a wise business man is for his markets, and you as a
+great trading nation are bound to think of your markets, not only your
+markets of to-day but of to-morrow and the day after to-morrow.
+
+The Free Trade theory was the birth of a time when our imports were
+practically all supplemental to our exports, all indispensable to us,
+and when, on the other hand, the whole of the world was in need of our
+goods, far beyond our power of supplying it. Since then the situation
+has wholly altered. At this actual moment, it is true, there is
+temporarily a state of things which in one respect reproduces the
+situation of fifty years ago. There is for the moment an almost
+unlimited demand for some of our goods abroad. But that is not the
+normal situation. The normal situation is that there is an increasing
+invasion of our markets by goods from abroad which we used to produce
+ourselves, and an increasing tendency to exclude our goods from
+foreign markets. The Tariff Reform movement is the inevitable result
+of these altered circumstances. There is nothing artificial about it.
+It is not, as some people think, the work of a single man, however
+much it may owe to his genius and his courage, however much it may
+suffer, with other good causes, through his enforced retirement from
+the field. It is not an eccentric idea of Mr. Chamberlain's. Sooner or
+later it was bound to come in any case. It is the common sense and
+experience of the people waking up to the altered state of affairs,
+beginning to shake itself free from a theory which no longer fits the
+facts. It is a movement of emancipation, a twofold struggle for
+freedom--in the sphere of economic theory, for freedom of thought, in
+the sphere of fiscal policy, for freedom of action.
+
+And that freedom of action is needed quickly. It is needed now. I am
+not doubtful of the ultimate triumph of Tariff Reform. Sooner or
+later, I believe, it is sure to achieve general recognition. What does
+distress me is the thought of the opportunities we are losing in the
+meantime. This year has been marked, disastrously marked, in our
+annals by the emphatic and deliberate rejection on the part of our
+Government of the great principle of Preferential Trade within the
+Empire. All the other self-governing States are in favour of it. The
+United Kingdom alone blocks the way. What does that mean? What is it
+that we risk losing as long as we refuse to accept the principle of
+Preferential Trade, and will certainly lose in the long run if we
+persist in that refusal? It is a position of permanent and assured
+advantage in some of the greatest and most growing markets in the
+world. Preference to British goods in the British dominions beyond the
+sea would be a constant and potent influence tending to induce the
+people of those countries to buy what they require to buy outside
+their own borders from us rather than from our rivals. It means beyond
+all doubt and question so much more work for British hands. And the
+people of those countries are anxious that British hands should get
+it. They have, if I may so express myself, a family feeling, which
+makes them wish to keep the business within the family. But business
+is business. They are willing to give us the first chance. But if we
+will give nothing in return, if we tell them to mind their own
+business and not to bother us with offers of mutual concessions, it is
+only a question of time, and the same chance will be given to others,
+who will not refuse to avail themselves of it.
+
+You see the beginning of the process already in such an event as the
+newly-concluded commercial treaty between Canada and France. If we
+choose, it is still possible for us not only to secure the preference
+we have in Colonial markets, but to increase it. But if we do nothing,
+commercial arrangements with other nations who are more far-sighted
+will gradually whittle that preference away. To my mind the action of
+Canada in the matter of that treaty, perfectly legitimate and natural
+though it be, is much more ominous and full of warning to us than the
+new Australian Tariff, about which such an unjustifiable outcry has
+been made. Rates of duty can be lowered as easily as they can be
+raised, but the principle of preference once abandoned would be very
+difficult to revive. I am sorry that the Australians have found it
+necessary in their own interests to raise their duties, but I would
+rather see any of the British Dominions raise its duties and still
+give a preference to British goods than lower its duties and take away
+that preference. Whatever duties may be imposed by Canada, Australia,
+or the other British Dominions, they will still remain great
+importers, and with the vast expansion in front of them their imports
+are bound to increase. They will still be excellent customers, and the
+point is that they should be our customers.
+
+In the case of Australia the actual extent of the preference accorded
+to British goods under the new tariff is not, as has been represented,
+of small value to us. It is of considerable value. But what is of far
+more importance is the fact that Australia continues to adhere to the
+principle of Preference. Moreover, Australia, following the example of
+Canada, has established an extensive free list for the benefit of this
+country. Let nobody say after this that Australia shows no family
+feeling. I for one am grateful to Australia, and I am grateful to that
+great Australian statesman, Mr. Deakin, for the way in which, in the
+teeth of discouragement from us, he has still persisted in making the
+principle of preferential trade within the Empire an essential feature
+of the Australian Tariff.
+
+Preference is vital to the future growth of British trade, but it is
+not only trade which is affected by it. The idea which lies at the
+root of it is that the scattered communities, which all own
+allegiance to the British Crown, should regard and treat one another
+not as strangers but as kinsmen, that, while each thinks first of its
+own interests, it should think next of the interests of the family,
+and of the rest of the world only after the family. That idea is the
+very corner-stone of Imperial unity. To my mind any weakening of that
+idea, any practical departure from it, would be an incalculable loss
+to all of us. I should regard a readjustment of our own Customs duties
+with the object of maintaining that idea, even if such readjustment
+were of some immediate expense to ourselves, as I hope to show you
+that it would not be, as a most trifling and inconsiderable price to
+pay for a prize of infinite value. I am the last man to contend that
+preferential trade alone is a sufficient bond of Empire. But I do
+contend that the maintenance or creation of other bonds becomes very
+difficult, if in the vitally important sphere of commerce we are to
+make no distinction between our fellow-citizens across the seas and
+foreigners. Closer trade relations involve closer relations in all
+other respects. An advantage, even a slight advantage, to Colonial
+imports in the great British market would tend to the development of
+the Colonies as compared with the foreign nations who compete with
+them. But the development of the British communities across the seas
+is of more value to us than an equivalent development of foreign
+countries. It is of more value to our trade, for, if there is one
+thing absolutely indisputable, it is that these communities buy ever
+so much more of us per head than foreign nations do. But it is not
+only a question of trade; it is a question of the future of our
+people. By encouraging the development of the British Dominions beyond
+the seas we direct emigration to them in preference to foreign lands.
+We keep our people under the flag instead of scattering them all over
+the world. We multiply not merely our best customers but our fellow
+citizens, our only sure and constant friends.
+
+And now is there nothing we can do to help forward this great object?
+Is it really the case, as the Free Traders contend, that in order to
+meet the advances of the other British States and to give, as the
+saying is, Preference for Preference, we should be obliged to make
+excessive sacrifices, and to place intolerable burdens on the people
+of this country? I believe that this is an absolute delusion. I
+believe that, if only we could shake off the fetters of a narrow and
+pedantic theory, and freely reshape our own system of import duties on
+principles of obvious common sense, we should be able at one and the
+same time to promote trade within the Empire, to strengthen our hands
+in commercial negotiations with foreign countries, and to render tardy
+justice to our home industries.
+
+The Free Trader goes on the principle of placing duties on a very few
+articles only, articles, generally, of universal consumption, and of
+making those duties very high ones. Moreover, with the exception of
+alcohol, these articles are all things which we cannot produce
+ourselves. I do not say that the system has not some merits. It is
+easy to work, and the cost of collection is moderate. But it has also
+great defects. The system is inelastic, for the duties being so few
+and so heavy it is difficult to raise them in case of emergency
+without checking consumption. Moreover, the burden of the duties
+falls entirely on the people of this country, for the foreign
+importer, except in the case of alcoholic liquors, has no home
+producer to compete with, and so he simply adds the whole of the duty
+to the price of the article. Last, but not least, the burden is
+inequitably distributed. It would be infinitely fairer, as between
+different classes of consumers, to put a moderate duty on a large
+number of articles than to put an enormous duty on two or three. But
+from that fairer and more reasonable system we are at present debarred
+by our pedantic adhesion to the rule that no duty may be put on
+imported articles unless an equivalent duty is put on articles of the
+same kind produced at home. Why, you may well ask, should we be bound
+by any such rule? I will tell you. It is because, unless we imposed
+such an equivalent duty, we should be favouring the British producer,
+and because under our present system every other consideration has got
+to give way to this supreme law, the "categorical imperative" of the
+Free Trader, that we must not do anything which could by any
+possibility in the remotest degree benefit the British producer in
+his competition with the foreigner in our home market. It is from the
+obsession of this doctrine that the Tariff Reformer wishes to liberate
+our fiscal policy. He approaches this question free from any doctrinal
+prepossessions whatever. Granted that a certain number of millions
+have to be raised by Customs duties, he sees before him some five to
+six hundred millions of foreign imports on which to raise them, and so
+his first and very natural reflection is, that by distributing duties
+pretty equally over this vast mass of imported commodities he could
+raise a very large revenue without greatly enhancing the price of
+anything. Our present system throws away, so to speak, the advantage
+of our vast and varied importation by electing to place the burden of
+duties entirely on very few articles. As against this system the
+Tariff Reformer favours the principle of a widespread tariff, of
+making all foreign imports pay, but pay moderately, and he holds that
+it is no more than justice to the British producer that all articles
+brought to the British market should contribute to the cost of
+keeping it up. It is no answer to say that it is the British consumer
+who would pay the duty, for even if this were invariably true, which
+it is not, it leaves unaffected the question of fair play between the
+British producer and the foreign producer. The price of the home-made
+article is enhanced by the taxes which fall upon the home makers, and
+which are largely devoted to keeping up our great open market, but the
+price of the foreign article is not so enhanced, though it has the
+full benefit of the open market all the same. Moreover, the price of
+the home-made article is also enhanced by the many restrictions which
+we place, and rightly place, on home manufacture in the interests of
+the workers--restrictions as to hours, methods of working, sanitary
+conditions, and so forth--all excellent, all laudable, but expensive,
+and from which the foreign maker is often absolutely, and always
+comparatively, free. The Tariff Reformer is all for the open market,
+but he is for fair play as between those who compete in it, and he
+holds that even cheapness ought not to be sought at the expense of
+unfairness to the British producer.
+
+I say, then, that the Tariff Reformer starts with the idea of a
+moderate all-round tariff. But he is not going to ride his principle
+to death. He is essentially practical. There are some existing duties,
+like those on alcoholic liquors, the high rate of which is justified
+for other than fiscal reasons. He sees no reason to lower these
+duties. On the other hand, there are some articles, such as raw
+cotton, which compete with no British produce, and even a slight
+enhancement of the price of which might materially injure our export
+trade. The Tariff Reformer would place these on a free list, for he
+feels that, however strong may be the argument for moderate all-round
+duties as a guiding rule, it is necessary to admit exceptions even to
+the best of rules, and it is part of his creed that we are bound to
+study the actual effect of particular duties both upon ourselves and
+upon others. No doubt that means hard work, an intimate acquaintance
+with the details of our industry and trade, an eye upon the
+proceedings of foreign countries. A modern tariff, if it is to be
+really suitable to the requirements of the nation adopting it, must be
+the work of experts. But is that any argument against it? Are we less
+competent to make a thorough study of these questions than other
+people, as for instance the Germans, or are we too lazy? Free Traders
+make fun of a scientific tariff, but why should science be excluded
+from the domain of fiscal policy, especially when the necessity of it
+is so vigorously and so justly impressed upon us in every other field?
+It is not only the War Office which has got to get rid of antiquated
+prejudices and to open its eyes to what is going on in the world. Our
+financial departments might reasonably be asked to do the same, and
+they are quite equally capable, and I have no doubt equally willing,
+to respond to such an appeal, instead of leaving the most thorough,
+the most comprehensive, and the most valuable inquiry into the effects
+of import duties, which has ever been made in this country, to a
+private agency like the Tariff Commission.
+
+I do not think it is necessary for me to point out how a widespread
+tariff, besides those other advantages which I have indicated, would
+strengthen our hands in commercial policy. In the first place, it
+would at once enable us to meet the advances of the other States of
+the Empire, and to make the British Empire in its commercial aspect a
+permanent reality. To do this it would not be necessary, nor do I
+think it would be right, to exempt goods from the British Dominions
+entirely from the duties to which similar goods coming from foreign
+lands are subject. Our purpose would be equally well served by doing
+what the Colonies do, and having two scales of duty, a lower one for
+the products of all British States and Dependencies, a higher one for
+those of the outside world. The amount of this preference would be a
+matter of bargain to be settled by some future Imperial Conference,
+not foredoomed to failure, and preceded by careful preliminary
+investigation and negotiations. It might be twenty-five, or
+thirty-three, or even fifty per cent. And whatever it was, I think we
+should reserve the right also to give a preference, but never of the
+same amount, to any foreign country which was willing to give us some
+substantial equivalent. It need not be a general preference; it might
+be the removal or reduction of some particular duties. I may say I do
+not myself like the idea of engaging in tariff wars. I do not believe
+in prohibitive or penal tariffs. But I do believe in having something
+to give to those who treat us well, something to withhold from those
+who treat us badly. At present, as you are well aware, Great Britain
+is the one great nation which is treated with absolute disregard by
+foreign countries in framing their tariffs. They know that however
+badly they treat us they have nothing to lose by it, and so we go to
+the wall on every occasion.
+
+And now, though there is a great deal more to be said, I feel I must
+not trespass much further on your patience. But there is one objection
+to Tariff Reform which is constantly made, and which is at once so
+untrue and so damaging, that before sitting down I should like to say
+a few words about it. We are told that this is an attempt to transfer
+the burden of a part of our taxation from the shoulders of the rich to
+those of the poor. If that were true, it would be fatal to Tariff
+Reform, and I for one would have nothing to do with it. But it is not
+true. There is no proposal to reduce and I believe there is no
+possibility of reducing, the burden which at present falls on the
+shoulders of the upper and middle classes in the shape of direct
+taxation. On the other hand, I do not believe there is much room for
+increasing it--though I think it can be increased in one or two
+directions--without consequences which the poorer classes would be the
+first to feel. Excise duties, which are mainly paid by those classes,
+are already about as high as they can be. It follows that for any
+increase of revenue, beyond the ordinary growth arising from increase
+of wealth and population, you must look, at least to a great extent,
+to Customs duties. And the tendency of the time is towards increased
+expenditure, all of it, mind you--and I do not complain of the
+fact--due to the effort to improve the condition of the mass of the
+people. It is thus no question of shifting existing burdens, it is a
+question of distributing the burden of new expenditure of which the
+mass of the people will derive the benefit. And if that new
+expenditure must, as I think I have shown, be met, at least in large
+part, by Customs duties, which method of raising these duties is more
+in the interest of the poorer classes--our present system, which
+enhances enormously the price of a few articles of universal
+consumption like tea and sugar and tobacco, or a tariff spread over a
+much greater number of articles at a much lower rate? Beyond all doubt
+or question the mass of the people would be better off under the
+latter system. Even assuming--as I will for the sake of argument,
+though I do not admit it--that the British consumer pays the whole of
+the duty on imported foreign goods competing with British goods, is it
+not evident that the poorer classes of the community would pay a
+smaller proportion of Customs duties under a tariff which included a
+great number of foreign manufactured articles, at present entirely
+free, and largely the luxuries of the rich, than they do, when Customs
+duties are restricted to a few articles of universal consumption?
+
+And that is at the same time the answer to the misleading, and often
+dishonest, outcry about "taxing the food of the people," about the big
+loaf and little loaf, and all the rest of it. The construction of a
+sensible all-round tariff presents many difficulties, but there is
+one difficulty which it does not present, and that is the difficulty
+of so adjusting your duties that the total proportion of them falling
+upon the wage-earning classes shall not be increased. I for one regard
+such an adjustment as a postulate in any scheme of Tariff Reform. And
+just one other argument--and I recommend it especially to those
+working-class leaders who are so vehement in their denunciation of
+Tariff Reform. Is it of no importance to the people whom they
+especially claim to represent that our fiscal policy should lean so
+heavily in favour of the foreign and against the British producer? If
+they regard that as a matter of indifference, I think they will come
+to find in time that the mass of the working classes do not agree with
+them. But be that as it may, it is certain that I, for one, do not
+advocate Tariff Reform in the interests of the rich, but in the
+interests of the whole nation, and therefore necessarily of the
+working classes, who are the majority of the nation.
+
+
+
+
+A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY
+
+Guildford, October 29, 1907
+
+
+I am very sensible of the honour of being called on to reply for the
+Unionist cause, but I approach the task with some diffidence, not to
+say trepidation. I feel very conscious that I am not a very good
+specimen of a party man. It is not that I do not hold strong opinions
+on many public questions--in fact, that is the very trouble. My
+opinions are too strong to fit well into any recognised programme. I
+suffer from an inveterate habit, which is partly congenital, but which
+has been developed by years spent in the service of the Crown, of
+looking at public questions from other than party points of view. And
+I am too old to unlearn it.
+
+For a man so constituted there is evidently only a limited _role_ in
+political life. But he may have his uses all the same, if you take
+him for what he is, and not for what he is not, and does not pretend
+to be. If he does not speak with the weight and authority of a party
+leader, he is at least free from the embarrassments by which a party
+leader is beset, and unhampered by the caution which a party leader is
+bound to exercise. He commits nobody but himself, and therefore he can
+afford to speak with a bluntness which is denied to those whose
+utterances commit many thousands of other people. And I am not sure
+whether the present moment is not one at which the unconventional
+treatment of public questions may not be specially useful, so, whether
+it be as an independent Unionist or as a friendly outsider--in
+whichever light you like to regard me--I venture to contribute my mite
+to the discussion.
+
+Having now made my position clear, I will at once plunge _in medias
+res_ with a few artless observations. You hear all this grumbling
+which is going on just now against the Unionist leader. Well,
+gentlemen, a party which is in low water always does grumble at its
+leader. I have known this sort of thing happen over and over again in
+my own lifetime. And the consequence is, it is all like water on a
+duck's back to me; it makes no impression on me whatsoever. I remember
+as long back as the late sixties and early seventies the Conservative
+party were ceaselessly grumbling at Lord Beaconsfield, then Mr.
+Disraeli, right up to his greatest victory and the commencement of his
+longest tenure of power--almost up to the moment when he became the
+permanent idol of the Conservative party. I remember how the Liberals
+grumbled at Mr. Gladstone from 1873 and 1874 almost up to the opening
+of the Midlothian campaign. Again, I remember how the Conservatives
+grumbled at Lord Salisbury from the first moment of his accession to
+the leadership right up to 1885. I can recall as well as if it were
+yesterday a young Tory friend of mine--he has become a distinguished
+man since, and I am not going to give him away--telling me, who was at
+that time a Liberal, in the year of grace 1883 or 1884, that it was
+absolutely hopeless for the Tory party ever to expect to come back
+into power with such a leader as Lord Salisbury. He called him a
+"Professor." He said, "No doubt he is a very able man and an excellent
+speaker, but he is a man of science. He has no popular gifts whatever.
+There is not a ghost of a chance of a Conservative victory so long as
+he is in command." Yet that was not more than two years before Lord
+Salisbury commenced a series of Premierships which kept him, for some
+thirteen and a half years out of seventeen, at the helm of the State.
+
+With all these experiences to look back upon it is really impossible
+for me to be much affected by the passing wave of dissatisfaction with
+Mr. Balfour. Men of first-rate ability and character are rare. Still
+rarer are men who, having those qualities, also have the knack of
+compelling the attention and respect even of a hostile House of
+Commons. When a party possesses a leader with all these gifts, it is
+not likely to change him in a hurry.
+
+But if I refuse to take a gloomy view of the Unionist leadership, I
+must admit that I am not altogether an optimist about the immediate
+prospects of Unionism. There is no doubt a bright side to the picture
+as well as a less encouraging one. The bright side, from the party
+point of view, is afforded by the hopeless chaos of opinion in the
+ranks of our opponents--by the total absence of any clear conviction
+or definite line whatever in the counsels of the Government, which
+causes Ministers to dash wildly from measure to measure in
+endeavouring to satisfy first one section and then another section of
+their motley following, and which prevents them from ever giving
+really adequate attention to any one of their proposals.
+
+I am not speaking of Ministers individually. Granted that some of them
+have done excellent work at the heads of their several departments--I
+think it would not be fair to deny that. I am thinking of their
+collective policy, and especially of their legislative efforts. For
+monuments of clumsy opportunism, commend me to the legislative
+failures, and, for the matter of that, to most of the legislative
+achievements, of the last two years.
+
+So far so good. Unionists cannot complain of what the Government is
+doing for them. And on the negative side of policy--in their duty as
+a mere Opposition--their course is clear. It is a fundamental article
+of their faith to maintain the authority of the Imperial Parliament in
+Ireland. But that authority can be set aside by the toleration of
+lawlessness just as much, and in a worse way, than by the repeal of
+the Union. And such toleration is the rule to-day. There may be no
+violent crime, but there is open and widespread defiance of the law
+and interference with the elementary rights of law-abiding people. It
+is a demoralising state of affairs, and one to which no good citizen
+in any part of the United Kingdom, however little he may be personally
+affected by it, can afford to be indifferent. Once let it be granted
+that any popular movement, which is not strong enough to obtain an
+alteration of the law by regular means, can simply set the law aside
+in practice, and you are at the beginning of general anarchy.
+
+Unionists have to fight for a restoration of the respect for law in
+Ireland in the interest of the whole kingdom. And they may have to
+fight also, it appears, against the abrogation of our existing
+constitution in favour of a system of quinquennial dictatorships. For
+that and nothing else is involved in the proposal to reduce the House
+of Lords to impotence and put nothing in its place. I am not concerned
+to represent the present constitution of the House of Lords as
+perfect. I have always been of opinion that a more representative and
+therefore a stronger second chamber was desirable. But that we can
+afford to do without any check on the House of Commons, especially
+since the removal of all checks upon the power of those who from time
+to time control the House of Commons to rush through any measures they
+please without the possibility of an appeal to the people--that is a
+proposition which no man with any knowledge of history or any respect
+for constitutional government can possibly defend. To resist such a
+proposal as that is not fighting for a party; it is not fighting for a
+class. It is fighting for the stability of society, for the
+fundamental rights of the whole nation.
+
+I say, then, that on the negative side, in the things it is called
+upon to resist, the Unionist party is strong and fortunate. But are we
+to be content with that? Should we not all like to feel that we
+appealed for the confidence of the people on the merits of our own
+policy, and not merely on the demerits of our opponents? That, I take
+it, is the feeling at the bottom of what men are saying on all hands
+just now--that the Unionist party ought to have a constructive policy.
+Now, if by a constructive policy is meant a string of promises, a sort
+of Newcastle programme, then I can well imagine any wise statesmen,
+especially if they happened to be in Opposition, thinking twice before
+they committed themselves to it. But if by a constructive policy is
+meant a definite set of principles, a clear attitude to the questions
+which most agitate the public mind, a sympathetic grasp of popular
+needs, and a readiness to indicate the extent to which, and the lines
+on which, you think it possible and desirable to satisfy them--then I
+agree that the Unionist party ought to have such a policy. And I
+venture to say that, if it has such a policy, the fact is not yet
+sufficiently apparent to the popular mind, or, perhaps, I should say,
+speaking as one of the populace, to my mind.
+
+Many people think that it is sufficient for the purpose--that it is
+possible to conduct a victorious campaign with the single watchword
+"Down with Socialism." Well, I am not fond of mere negatives. I do not
+like fighting an abstract noun. My objection to anti-Socialism as a
+platform is that Socialism means so many different things. On this
+point I agree with Mr. Asquith. I will wait to denounce Socialism till
+I see what form it takes. Sometimes it is synonymous with robbery, and
+to robbery, open or veiled, boldly stalking in the face of day or
+hiding itself under specious phrases, Unionists are, as a matter of
+course, opposed. But mere fidelity to the eighth Commandment is not a
+constructive policy, and Socialism is not necessarily synonymous with
+robbery. Correctly used, the word only signifies a particular view of
+the proper relation of the State to its citizens--a tendency to
+substitute public for private ownership, or to restrict the freedom of
+individual enterprise in the interests of the public. But there are
+some forms of property which we all admit should be public and not
+private, and the freedom of individual enterprise is already limited
+by a hundred laws. Socialism and Individualism are opposing
+principles, which enter in various proportions into the constitution
+of every civilised society; it is merely a question of degree. One
+community is more Socialistic than another. The same community is more
+Socialistic at one time than at another. This country is far more
+Socialistic than it was fifty years ago, and for most of the changes
+in that direction the Unionist and the Tory party are responsible. The
+Factory Acts are one instance; free education is another. The danger,
+as it seems to me, of the Unionist party going off on a crusade
+against Socialism is that in the heat of that crusade it may neglect,
+or appear to neglect, those social evils of which honest Socialism is
+striving, often, no doubt, by unwise means, to effect a cure. If the
+Unionist party did that, it would be unfaithful to its own best
+traditions from the days of "Sybil" and "Coningsby" to the present
+time.
+
+The true antidote to revolutionary Socialism is practical social
+reform. That is no claptrap phrase--although it may sound so; there is
+a great historical truth behind it. The revolutionary Socialist--I
+call him revolutionary because he wants to alter the whole basis of
+society--would like to get rid of all private property, except,
+perhaps, our domestic pots and pans. He is averse from private
+enterprise. He is going absurdly too far; but what gave birth to his
+doctrine? The abuse of the rights of private property, the cruelty and
+the failure of the scramble for gain, which mark the reign of a
+one-sided Individualism. If we had not gone much too far in one
+direction, we should not have had this extravagant reaction in the
+other. But do not let us lose our heads in face of that reaction.
+While resisting the revolutionary propaganda, let us be more, and not
+less, strenuous in removing the causes of it.
+
+You may think I am now talking pure Radicalism. Well, but it is not to
+the objects which many Radicals have at heart that we, as Unionists,
+need take exception. Why should we make them a present of those good
+objects? Old age pensions; the multiplication of small landholders--and,
+let me add, landowners; the resuscitation of agriculture; and, on the
+other hand, better housing in our crowded centres; town planning;
+sanitary conditions of labour; the extinction of sweating; the physical
+training of the people; continuation schools--these and all other
+measures necessary to preserve the stamina of the race and develop its
+intelligence and productive power--have we not as good a right to
+regard these as our objects, aye, and in many cases a better right, than
+the supporters of the Government have?
+
+It is not these objects which we deprecate. On the contrary, they have
+our ardent sympathy. What we do deprecate is the spirit in which they
+are so often preached and pursued. No progress is going to be
+made--quite the contrary--by stirring up class hatred or trying to rob
+Peter in order to pay Paul. It is not true that you cannot benefit one
+class without taking from another class--still less true that by
+taking from one you necessarily benefit another. The national income,
+the sum total of all our productive activities, is capable of being
+enormously increased or diminished by wise or foolish policy. For it
+does not only depend on the amount of capital and labour. A number of
+far subtler factors enter into the account--science, organisation,
+energy, credit, confidence, the spirit in which men set about their
+business. The one thing which would be certain to diminish that
+income, and to recoil on all of us, would be that war of classes which
+many people seem anxious to stir up. Nothing could be more fatal to
+prosperity, and to the fairest hopes of social progress, than if the
+great body of the upper and middle classes of the community had cause
+to regard that progress as indissolubly associated with an attack upon
+themselves. And that is why, if reforms such as I have indicated are
+costly--as they will be costly--you must find some better way of
+providing for them than by merely giving another turn to the
+income-tax screw, or just adding so much per cent. to the estate duty.
+
+From my point of view, social reform is a national affair. All classes
+benefit by it, not only those directly affected. And therefore all
+should contribute according to their means. I do not in any way object
+to the rich being made to contribute, even for purposes in which they
+are not directly interested. What I do object to is that the great
+body of the people should not contribute to them. It is thoroughly
+vicious in principle to divide the nation, as many of the Radical and
+Labour men want to divide it, into two sections--a majority which only
+calls the tune, and a minority which only pays the piper.
+
+I own I am aghast at the mean opinion which many politicians seem to
+have of the mass of their working fellow countrymen, when they
+approach them with this crude sort of bribery, offering them
+everything for nothing, always talking to them of their claims upon
+the State, and never of their duties towards it. This is a democratic
+country. It is their State and their Empire--theirs to possess, theirs
+to control, but theirs also to support and to defend. And I for one
+have such faith in the common sense and fair-mindedness of the British
+people that I believe you have only to convince them that you have a
+really sound national policy, and they will rally to it, without
+having to be bought by promises of a penny off this and twopence off
+the other--a sort of appeal, I regret to say, which is not only
+confined to Radical orators, but in which Unionists also are
+sometimes too apt to indulge.
+
+And, now, gentlemen, only one word in conclusion--a brief and
+inadequate reference to a vast subject, but one to which I am at all
+times and seasons specially bound to refer. After all, my chief
+quarrel with the Radical party--not with all of them--I do not say
+that for a moment--but with a far too large and influential
+section--is their anti-patriotism. I use the word advisedly. It is not
+that they are unpatriotic in the sense of having no affection for
+their country. It is that they are deliberately and on principle--I do
+not asperse their motives; I do not question their sincerity and
+conviction--anti-patriotic, opposed to national as distinct from
+cosmopolitan ideals. They are not zealous for national defence; they
+have no faith in the Empire; they love to show their impartiality by
+taking sides against their own country; they object to their children
+being taught respect for the flag. But we Unionists are not
+cosmopolitans, but Britons. We have no envy or ill-will towards other
+nations; a man is not a worse neighbour because he loves his own
+family. But we do hold that it is not our business to look after
+others. It is our business to look after ourselves and our
+dependencies, and the great kindred communities who own allegiance to
+the British flag. We want to draw closer to them, to stand together;
+and we believe that the strength and the unity of the British Empire
+are of vital and practical importance to every citizen. In all our
+propaganda, and in all our policy, let us continue to give that great
+principle a foremost place.
+
+
+
+
+UNIONISTS AND THE EMPIRE
+
+Edinburgh, November 15, 1907
+
+
+I am greatly reassured by the very kind reception which you have just
+given me. To tell the truth, I had been feeling a little alarmed at
+the fate which might await me in Edinburgh. From a faithful perusal of
+the Radical Press I had been led to believe that Scotland was seething
+with righteous indignation against that branch of the Legislature of
+which I am, it is true, only a humble and very recent member, but yet
+a member, and therefore involved in the general condemnation of the
+ruthless hereditary tyrants and oppressors of the people, the
+privileged landowning class, which is alleged to be so out of sympathy
+with the mass of their fellow-countrymen, although, oddly enough, it
+supplies many of the most popular candidates, not only of one party,
+at any General Election. Personally, I feel it rather hard to be
+painted in such black colours. There is no taint of hereditary
+privilege about me. I am not--I wish I were--the owner of broad acres,
+and I am in no way conscious of belonging to a specially favoured
+class. There are a great many of my fellow members in the House of
+Lords who are in the same position, and who sit there, not by virtue
+of any privilege, but by virtue of their services, or, let me say in
+my own case, supposed services, to the State. And while we sit
+there--and here I venture, with all humility, to speak for all the
+members of that body, whether hereditary or created--we feel that we
+ought to deal with the questions submitted to us to the best of our
+judgment and conscience, without fear of the consequences to ourselves
+and without allowing ourselves to be brow-beaten for not being
+different from what we are. We believe that we perform a useful and
+necessary function. We believe that a Second Chamber is essential to
+the good government of this country. We do not contend--certainly I am
+myself very far from contending--that the existing Second Chamber is
+the best imaginable. Let there be a well-considered reform of the
+House of Lords, or even, if need be, an entirely different Second
+Chamber. But until you have got this better instrument, do not throw
+away the instrument which you have--the only defence, not of the
+privileges of a class, but of the rights of the whole nation, against
+hasty, ill-considered measures and against the subordination of
+permanent national interests to the temporary exigencies of a party.
+
+It is said that there is a permanent Conservative majority in the
+House of Lords. But then every Second Chamber is, and ought to be,
+conservative in temper. It exists to exercise a restraining influence,
+to ensure that great changes shall not be made in fundamental
+institutions except by the deliberate will of the nation, and not as
+the outcome of a mere passing mood. And if the accusation is, that the
+House of Lords is too Conservative in a party sense, which is a
+different thing, I admit, from being Conservative in the highest and
+best sense, that points not to doing away with the Second Chamber, but
+to making such a change in its composition as, while leaving it still
+powerful, still, above all, independent, will render it more
+representative of the permanent mind of the nation.
+
+But let me be permitted to observe that the instance relied on to prove
+that the House of Lords is in the pocket of the Conservative party is a
+very unfortunate instance. What is its offence? It is said that the
+Lords rejected the Scottish Land Bill. But they did not reject the
+Scottish Land Bill. They were quite prepared to accept a portion of the
+Bill, and it is for the Government to answer to the people interested
+in that portion for their not having received the benefits which the
+Bill was presumably intended to bestow on them. What the Government did
+was to hold a pistol at the head of the House of Lords, and to say that
+they must either accept the whole straggling and ill-constructed
+measure as it stood, or be held up to public odium for rejecting it.
+But when the Bill was looked at as a whole, it was found to contain
+principles--novel principles as far as the great part of Scotland was
+concerned, bad principles, as the experience of Ireland showed--which
+the House of Lords, and not only the Conservatives in the House of
+Lords, were not prepared to endorse. Was it Conservative criticism
+which killed the Bill? It was riddled with arguments by a Liberal Peer
+and former Liberal Prime Minister--arguments to which the Government
+speakers were quite unable, and had the good sense not even to attempt,
+to reply. And that is the instance which is quoted to prove that the
+House of Lords is a Tory Caucus!
+
+Now, before leaving this question of the House of Lords, let me just
+say one word about its general attitude. I have not long been a member
+of that assembly. I do not presume to take much part in its
+discussions. But I follow them, and I think I follow them with a
+fairly unprejudiced mind. On many questions I am perhaps not in accord
+with the views of the majority of the House. But what strikes me about
+the House of Lords is that it is a singularly independent assembly. It
+is not at the beck and call of any man. It is a body which does not
+care at all about party claptrap, but which does care a great deal
+about a good argument, from whatever quarter it may proceed.
+Moreover, I am confident that the great body of its members are quite
+alive to the fact that they cannot afford to cast their votes merely
+according to their individual opinions and personal prejudices--that
+they are trustees for the nation, and that while it is their duty to
+prevent the nation being hustled into revolution, as but for them it
+would have been hustled into Home Rule in 1893, they have no right to
+resist changes upon which the nation has clearly and after full
+deliberation set its mind. And when the Prime Minister says that it is
+intolerable arrogance on the part of the House of Lords to pretend to
+know better what the nation wishes than the House of Commons, I can
+only reply that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. In 1893 the
+House of Commons said that the nation wished Home Rule. The House of
+Lords had the intolerable arrogance to take a different view. Well,
+within less than two years the question was submitted to the nation;
+and who proved to be right?
+
+I regret to have had to dwell at such length upon this particular
+topic. But it seems to me that we have no choice in the matter. If
+the Government succeed in their attempt to divert the attention of the
+nation from matters of the greatest interest at home and abroad in
+order to involve us all in a constitutional struggle on a false issue,
+we must be prepared to meet them. But I do not wish to waste the rare
+opportunity afforded to me to-night of addressing this great and
+representative Scottish audience by talking exclusively about this
+regrettable manoeuvre. There is something I am anxious to say to you
+about the future of the Unionist party. I do not claim to lay down a
+policy for that or for any party. I am not, by temperament or
+antecedents, a good party man. But I want to be allowed, as a private
+citizen, to point out what are the great services which I think the
+Unionist party can render to the nation at the present very critical
+juncture in its history. The Unionist party has a splendid record in
+the past. For twenty years it has saved the United Kingdom from
+disruption. It has preserved South Africa for the Empire; and, greatly
+as I feel and know, that the results of the efforts and sacrifices of
+the nation have been marred and impaired by the disastrous policy of
+the last two years, South Africa is still one country under the
+British flag. And all the time, in spite of foreign war and domestic
+sedition, the Unionist party has pursued a steady policy of practical
+social reform, and the administrative and legislative record of the
+last twenty years will compare favourably with that of any period of
+our history.
+
+But no party can afford to rely upon its past achievements. How is the
+Unionist party going to confront the great problems of the present
+day? The greatest of these problems, as I shall never cease to preach
+to my countrymen, is the maintenance of the great heritage which we
+owe to the courage, the enterprise, and the self-sacrifice of our
+forefathers, who built up one of the greatest Empires in history by,
+on the whole, the most honourable means. The epoch of expansion is
+pretty nearly past, but there remains before us a great work of
+development and consolidation. And that is a work which should appeal
+especially to Scotsmen. The Scottish people have borne a great part,
+great out of proportion to their numbers, in building up our common
+British heritage. They are taking a foremost part in it to-day. All
+over the world, as settlers in Canada, in Australia, or in South
+Africa, as administrators in India and elsewhere, they are among the
+sturdiest pillars on which the great Imperial fabric rests. I am not
+talking in the air. I am speaking from my personal experience, and
+only saying in public here to-night what I have said in private a
+hundred times, that as an agent of my country in distant lands I have
+had endless occasion to appreciate the support given to the British
+cause by the ability, the courage, the shrewd sense and the broad
+Imperial instinct of many Scotsmen. And therefore I look with
+confidence to a Scottish audience to support my appeal for continuous
+national effort in making the most of the British Empire. I say this
+is not a matter with regard to which we can afford to rest on our
+laurels. We must either go forward or we shall go back. And especially
+ought we to go forward in developing co-operation, on a basis of
+equality and partnership, with the great self-governing communities
+of our race in the distant portions of the world, else they will drift
+away from us. Do not let us think for a moment that we can afford such
+another fiasco as the late Colonial Conference. Do not let us imagine
+for a moment that we can go to sleep over the questions then raised,
+and not one of them settled, for four years, only to find ourselves
+unprepared when the next Conference meets. A cordial social welcome,
+many toasts, many dinners, are all very well in their way, but they
+are not enough. What is wanted is a real understanding of what our
+fellow countrymen across the seas are driving at, and a real attempt
+to meet them in their efforts to keep us a united family. All that our
+present rulers seem able to do is to misunderstand, and therefore
+unconsciously to misrepresent--I do not question their good
+intentions, but I think they are struck with mental blindness in this
+matter--to misrepresent the attitude of the colonists and greatly to
+exaggerate the difficulties of meeting them half-way. The speeches of
+Ministers on a question like that of Colonial Preference leave upon me
+the most deplorable impression. One would have thought that, if they
+could not get over the objections which they feel to meeting the
+advances of our kinsmen, they would at least show some sort of regret
+at their failure. But not a bit of it. Their one idea all along has
+been to magnify the difficulties in the way in order to make party
+capital out of the business. They saw their way to a good cry about
+"taxing the food of the people," the big and the little loaf, and so
+forth, and they went racing after it, regardless of everything but its
+electioneering value. From first to last there has been the same
+desire to make the worst of things, sometimes by very disingenuous
+means. First of all it was said that there was "no Colonial offer."
+But when the representatives of the Colonies came here, and all in the
+plainest terms offered us preference for preference, this device
+evidently had to be abandoned. So then it was asserted that, in order
+to give preference to the Colonies, we must tax raw materials. But
+this move again was promptly checkmated by the clear and repeated
+declaration of the Colonial representatives that they did not expect
+us to tax raw materials. And so nothing was left to Ministers,
+determined as they were to wriggle out of any agreement with the
+Colonies at all costs, except to fall back on the old, weary
+parrot-cry--"Will you tax corn?" "Will you tax butter?" and so on
+through the whole list of articles of common consumption, the taxation
+of any one of which was thought to be valuable as an electioneering
+bogey.
+
+For my own part, I am not the least bit frightened by any of these
+questions. If I am asked whether I would tax this or tax that, it may
+be proof of great depravity on my part, but I say without hesitation,
+that, for a sufficient object, I should not have the least objection
+to putting two shillings a quarter on wheat or twopence a pound on
+butter. But I must add that the whole argument nauseates me. What sort
+of opinion must these gentlemen have of their fellow countrymen, if
+they think that the question of a farthing on the quartern loaf or
+half a farthing on the pat of butter is going to outweigh in their
+minds every national consideration? And these are the men who accused
+Mr. Chamberlain of wishing to unite the Empire by sordid bonds! It is
+indeed extraordinary and to my mind almost heartrending to see how
+this question of Tariff Reform continues to be discussed on the lowest
+grounds, and how its higher and wider aspects seem to be so constantly
+neglected. Yet we have no excuse for ignoring them. The Colonial
+advocates of Preference, and especially Mr. Deakin, with whose point
+of view I thoroughly agree, have repeatedly explained the great
+political, national, and I might almost say moral aspects of that
+policy. There is a great deal more in it than a readjustment of
+duties--twopence off this and a penny on that. I do not say that such
+details are not important. When the time comes I am prepared to
+show--and I am an old hand at these things--that the objections which
+loom so large in many eyes can really be very easily circumvented. But
+I would not attempt to bother my fellow countrymen with complicated
+changes in their fiscal arrangements, or even with the discussion of
+them, if it were not for the bigness of the principle that is
+involved.
+
+I wish to look at it from two points of view. The principle which
+lies at the root of Tariff Reform, in its Imperial aspect, is the
+national principle. The people of these great dominions beyond the
+seas are no strangers to us. They are our own kith and kin. We do not
+wish to deal with them, even in merely material matters, on the same
+basis as with strangers. That is the great difference between us
+Tariff Reformers and the Cobdenites. The Cobdenite only looks at the
+commercial side. He is a cosmopolitan. He does not care from whom he
+buys, or to whom he sells. He does not care about the ulterior effects
+of his trading, whether it promotes British industry or ruins it;
+whether it assists the growth of the kindred States, or only enriches
+foreign countries. To us Tariff Reformers these matters are of moment,
+and of the most tremendous moment. We do not undervalue our great
+foreign trade, and I for one am convinced that there is nothing in the
+principles of Tariff Reform which will injure that trade. Quite the
+reverse. But we do hold that our first concern is with the industry
+and productive capacities of our own country, and our next with those
+of the great kindred countries across the seas. We hold that a wise
+fiscal policy would help to direct commerce into channels which would
+not only assist the British worker, but also assist Colonial
+development, and make for the greater and more rapid growth of those
+countries, which not only contain our best customers, but our fellow
+citizens.
+
+That, I say, is one aspect of the matter. But then there is the other
+side--the question of social reform in this country. Now here again we
+differ from the Cobdenite. The Cobdenite is an individualist. He
+believes that private enterprise, working under a system of unfettered
+competition, with cheapness as its supreme object, is the surest road
+to universal well-being. The Tariff Reformer also believes in private
+enterprise, but he does not believe that the mere blind struggle for
+individual gain is going to produce the most beneficent results. He
+does not believe in cheapness if it is the result of sweating or of
+underpaid labour. He keeps before him as the main object of all
+domestic policy the gradual, steady elevation of the standard of life
+throughout the community; and he believes that the action of the
+State deliberately directed to the encouragement of British industry,
+not merely by tariffs, is part and parcel of any sound national policy
+and of true Imperialism. And please observe that in a number of cases
+the Radical party itself has abandoned Cobdenism. Pure individualism
+went to the wall in the Factory Acts, and it is going to the wall
+every day in our domestic legislation. It is solely with regard to
+this matter of imports that the Radical party still cling to the
+Cobdenite doctrine, and the consequence is that their policy has
+become a mass of inconsistencies. It is devoid of any logical
+foundation whatever.
+
+I know that there are many people, sound Unionists at heart, who still
+have a difficulty about accepting the doctrines of the Tariff
+Reformers. My belief is that, if they could only look at the matter
+from the broad national and Imperial point of view, they would come to
+alter their convictions. I am not advocating Tariff Reform as in
+itself the greatest of human objects. But it seems to me the key of
+the position. It seems to me that, without it, we can neither take the
+first steps towards drawing closer the bonds between the mother
+country and the great self-governing States of the Empire; nor
+maintain the prosperity of the British worker in face of unfair
+foreign competition; nor obtain that large and elastic revenue which
+is absolutely essential, if we are going to pursue a policy of social
+reform and mean real business. I cannot but hope that many of those
+who still shy at Tariff Reform, when they come to look at it from this
+point of view--to see it as I see it, not as an isolated thing, but as
+an essential and necessary part of a comprehensive national
+policy--will rally to our cause. I have travelled along that road
+myself. I have been a Cobdenite myself--I am not ashamed of it. But I
+have come to see that the doctrine of free imports--the religion of
+free imports, I ought to say--as it is practised in this country
+to-day, is inconsistent with social reform, inconsistent with fair
+play to British industry, and inconsistent with the development and
+consolidation of the Empire. And therefore I rejoice that, in the
+really great speech which he delivered last night, the leader of the
+Unionist party has once more unhesitatingly affirmed his adhesion to
+the principles which I have been trying, in my feebler way, to
+advocate here this evening. My own conviction is that, when these
+principles are understood in all their bearings, they will command the
+approval of the mass of the people. And even in Scotland, where I dare
+say it is a very uphill fight, I look forward with confidence to their
+ultimate victory. Do not let us be discouraged if the fight is long
+and the progress slow. The great permanent influences are on our side.
+On the one hand there is the growth of the Empire, with all the
+opportunities which it affords; on the other there is the increasing
+determination of foreign nations to keep their business to themselves.
+These potent facts, which have already converted so many leading
+minds, will in due time make themselves felt in ever-widening circles.
+And they will not fail to produce their effect upon the shrewd
+practical sense of the Scottish people, especially when combined with
+an appeal to the patriotic instincts of a race which has done so much
+to make the Empire what it is, and which has such a supreme interest
+in its maintenance and consolidation.
+
+
+
+
+UNIONISTS AND SOCIAL REFORM
+
+Rugby, November 19, 1907
+
+
+There has been such a deluge of talk during the last three weeks that
+I doubt whether it is possible for me, or any man, to make a further
+contribution to the discussion which will have any freshness or value.
+But inasmuch as you probably do not all read all the speeches, you may
+perhaps be willing to hear from me a condensed summary of what it all
+comes to--of course, from my point of view, which no doubt is not
+quite the same as that of the Prime Minister or Mr. Asquith. Now, from
+my point of view, there has been a considerable clearing of the air,
+and we ought all to be in a position to take a more practical and less
+exaggerated view of the situation. Speaking as a Tariff Reformer, I
+think that those people, with whom Tariff Reformers agree on almost
+all other political questions, but who are strongly and
+conscientiously opposed to anything like what they call tampering with
+our fiscal system, must by now understand a little better than they
+did before what Tariff Reformers really aim at, and must begin to see
+that there is nothing so very monstrous or revolutionary about our
+proposals. I hope they may also begin to see why it is that Tariff
+Reformers are so persistent and so insistent upon their own particular
+view. There is something very attractive in the argument which says
+that, since Tariff Reform is a stumbling-block to many good Unionists,
+it should be dropped, and our ranks closed in defence of an effective
+Second Chamber, and in defence of all our institutions against
+revolutionary attacks directed upon the existing order of society. In
+so far as this is an argument for tolerance and against
+excommunicating people because they do not agree with me about Tariff
+Reform, I am entirely in accord with it. I am only a convert to Tariff
+Reform myself, although I am not a very recent convert, for at the
+beginning of 1903, at Bloemfontein, I was instrumental in inducing all
+the South African Colonies to give a substantial preference to goods
+of British origin. I was instrumental in doing that some months before
+the great Tariff Reform campaign was inaugurated in this country by
+its leading champion, Mr. Chamberlain. But while I am all for personal
+tolerance, I am opposed to any compromise on the question of
+principle. I am not opposed to it from any perverseness or any
+obstinacy. I am opposed to it because I see clearly that dropping
+Tariff Reform will knock the bottom out of a policy which I believe is
+not only right in itself, but is the only effective defence of the
+Union and of many other things which are very dear to us--I mean a
+policy of constructive Imperialism, and of steady, consistent,
+unhasting, and unresting Social Reform.
+
+I have never advocated Tariff Reform as a nostrum or as a panacea. I
+have never pretended that it is by itself alone sufficient to cure all
+the evils inherent in our social system, or alone sufficient as a bond
+of Empire. What I contend is that without it, without recovering our
+fiscal freedom, without recovering the power to deal with Customs
+Duties in accordance with the conditions of the present time and not
+the conditions of fifty years ago, we cannot carry out any of those
+measures which it is most necessary that we should carry out. Without
+it we are unable to defend ourselves against illegitimate foreign
+competition; we are unable to enter into those trade arrangements with
+the great self-governing States of the British Crown across the seas,
+which are calculated to bestow the most far-reaching benefits upon
+them and upon us; and we are unable to obtain the revenue which is
+required for a policy of progressive Social Reform. I hope that people
+otherwise in agreement with us, who have hitherto not seen their way
+to get over their objections to Tariff Reform, will, nevertheless,
+find themselves able to accept that principle, when they regard it,
+not as an isolated thing, but as an essential part of a great national
+and Imperial policy.
+
+Of course, they will have to see it as it is, and not as it is
+represented by its opponents. The opponents of Tariff Reform have a
+very easy method of arguing with its supporters. They say that any
+departure whatsoever from our present fiscal system necessarily
+involves taxing raw materials, and must necessarily result in high and
+prohibitive duties, which will upset our foreign trade, and will be
+ruinous and disorganising to the whole business of the country. But
+Tariff Reformers are not going to frame their duties in order to suit
+the argumentative convenience of Mr. Asquith. They are going to be
+guided by wholly different considerations from that. It is curious
+that everybody opposed to Tariff Reform says that Tariff Reformers
+intend to tax raw material, while Tariff Reformers themselves have
+steadily said they do not. I ask you in that respect to take the
+description of a policy of Tariff Reform from those who advocate it,
+and not from those who oppose it. And as for the argument about high
+prohibitive duties, I wish people would read the reports or summaries
+of the reports of the Tariff Commission. They contain not only the
+most valuable collection that exists anywhere of the present facts
+about almost every branch of British industry but they are also an
+authoritative source from which to draw inferences as to the
+intentions of Tariff Reformers. Now the Tariff Reform Commission have
+not attempted to frame a complete tariff, a scale of duties for all
+articles imported into this country, and wisely, because, if they had
+tried to do that, people would have said that they were arrogating to
+themselves the duties of Parliament. What they have done is to show by
+a few instances that a policy of Tariff Reform is not a thing in the
+air, not a mere thing of phrases and catchwords, but is a practical,
+businesslike working policy. They have drawn up what may be called
+experimental scales of duties, which are merely suggestions for
+consideration, with respect to a number of articles under the
+principal heads of British imports, such as, for instance,
+agricultural imports and imports of iron and steel. These experimental
+duties vary on the average from something like 5 per cent. to 10 per
+cent. on the value of the articles. In no one case in my recollection
+do they exceed 10 per cent.
+
+But then the opponents of Tariff Reform say: "Yes. That is all very
+well. But though you may begin with moderate duties, you are bound to
+proceed to higher ones. It is in the nature of things that you should
+go on increasing and increasing, and in the end we shall all be
+ruined." I must say that seems to me great nonsense. It reminds me of
+nothing so much as the fearful warnings which I have read in the least
+judicious sort of temperance literature, and sometimes heard from
+temperance orators of the more extreme type--the sort of warning, I
+mean, that, if you once begin touching anything stronger than water,
+you are bound to go on till you end by beating your wife and die in a
+workhouse. But you and I know perfectly well that it is possible to
+have an occasional glass of beer or glass of wine, or even, low be it
+spoken, a little whisky, without beating or wanting to beat anybody,
+and without coming to such a terrible end. The argument against the
+use of anything from its abuse has always struck me as one of the
+feeblest of arguments. And just see how particularly absurd it is in
+the present case. The effect of duties on foreign imports, even such
+moderate and carefully devised duties as those to which I have
+referred, would, we are told, be ruinous to British trade. It would
+place intolerable burdens upon the people. Yet for all that the people
+would, it appears, insist on increasing these burdens. Surely it is as
+clear as a pike-staff that, if the duties which Tariff Reformers
+advocate were to produce the evils which Free Importers allege that
+they would produce, these duties, so far from being inevitably
+maintained and increased, would not survive one General Election after
+their imposition.
+
+It is not only with regard to Tariff Reform that I think the air is
+clearer. The Unionist Party has to my mind escaped another danger
+which was quite as great as that of allowing the Tariff question to be
+pushed on one side, and that was the danger of being frightened by the
+scare, which the noisy spreading of certain subversive doctrines has
+lately caused, into a purely negative and defensive attitude; of
+ceasing to be, as it has been, a popular and progressive party, and
+becoming merely the embodiment of upper and middle class prejudices
+and alarms. I do not say that there are not many projects in the air
+which are calculated to excite alarm, but they can only be
+successfully resisted on frankly democratic and popular lines. My own
+feeling is--I may be quite wrong, but I state my opinion for what it
+is worth--that there is far less danger of the democracy going wrong
+about domestic questions than there is of its going wrong about
+foreign and Imperial questions, and for this simple reason, that with
+regard to domestic questions they have their own sense and experience
+to guide them.
+
+If a mistake is made in domestic policy its consequences are rapidly
+felt, and no amount of fine talking will induce people to persist in
+courses which are affecting them injuriously in their daily lives. You
+have thus a constant and effective check upon those who are disposed
+to try dangerous experiments, or to go too fast even on lines which
+may be in themselves laudable, as the experience of recent municipal
+elections, among other things, clearly shows. But with regard to
+Imperial questions, to our great and vital interests in distant parts
+of the earth, there is necessarily neither the same amount of personal
+knowledge on the part of the electorate, nor do the consequences of a
+mistaken policy recoil so directly and so unmistakably upon them.
+These subjects, therefore, are the happy hunting-ground of the
+visionary and the phrase-maker. I have seen the people of this country
+talked into a policy with regard to South Africa at once so injurious
+to their own interests, and so base towards those who had thrown in
+their lot with us and trusted us, that, if the British nation had only
+known what that policy really meant, they would have spat it out of
+their mouths. And I tremble every day lest, on the vital question of
+Defence, the pressure of well-meaning but ignorant idealists, or the
+meaner influence of vote-catching demagogues, should lead this
+Government or, indeed, any Government, to curtail the provisions,
+already none too ample, for the safety of the Empire, in order to pose
+as the friends of peace or as special adepts in economy. I know these
+savings of a million or two a year over say five or ten years, which
+cost you fifty or one hundred millions, wasted through unreadiness
+when the crisis comes, to say nothing of the waste of gallant lives
+even more precious. This is the kind of question about which the
+democracy is liable to be misled, being without the corrective of
+direct personal contact with the facts to keep it straight. And it is
+unpopular and up-hill work to go on reminding people of the vastness
+of the duty and the responsibility which the control of so great a
+portion of the earth's surface, with a dependent population of three
+or four hundred millions, necessarily involves; to go on reminding
+them, too, how their own prosperity and even existence in these
+islands are linked by a hundred subtle but not always obvious or
+superficially apparent threads with the maintenance of those great
+external possessions.
+
+I say these are difficulties which any party or any man, who is
+prepared to do his duty by the electorate of this country, not merely
+to ingratiate himself with them for the moment, but to win their
+confidence by deserving it, by telling them the truth, by serving
+their permanent interests and not their passing moods, is bound to
+face. For my own part, I have always been perfectly frank on these
+questions. I have maintained on many platforms, I am prepared to
+maintain here to-night and shall always maintain, although this is a
+subject on which it may be long before my views are included in any
+party programme--I say I shall always maintain that real security is
+not possible without citizen service, and that the training of every
+able-bodied man to be capable of taking part, if need be, in the
+defence of his country, is not only good for the country but good for
+the man--and would materially assist in the solution of many other
+problems, social and economic. But being, as I am, thus
+uncompromising, and quite prepared to find myself unpopular, on these
+vital questions of national security, and of our Imperial duties and
+responsibilities, I can perhaps afford to say, without being suspected
+of fawning or of wishing to play the demagogue myself, that in the
+matter of domestic reform I am not easy to frighten, and that I have a
+very great trust in the essential fair-mindedness and good sense of
+the great body of my fellow countrymen with regard to questions which
+come within their own direct cognisance. And therefore it was most
+reassuring to me at any rate--and I hope it was to you--to observe,
+that that large section of the Unionist Party which met at Birmingham
+last week, not so much by any resolutions or formal programme--for
+there was nothing very novel in these--as by the whole tone and temper
+of its proceedings, affirmed in the most emphatic manner the
+essentially progressive and democratic character of Unionism. The
+greatest danger I hold to the Unionist Party and to the nation is that
+the ideals of national strength and Imperial consolidation on the one
+hand, and of democratic progress and domestic reform on the other,
+should be dissevered, and that people should come to regard as
+antagonistic objects which are essentially related and complementary
+to one another. The upholders of the Union, the upholders of the
+Empire, the upholders of the fundamental institutions of the State,
+must not only be, but must be seen and known to be, the strenuous and
+constant assailants of those two great related curses of our social
+system--irregular employment and unhealthy conditions of life--and of
+all the various causes which lead to them.
+
+I cannot stay here to enumerate those causes, but I will mention a
+few of them. There is the defective training of children, defective
+physical training to begin with, and then the failure to equip them
+with any particular and definite form of skill. There is the irregular
+way in which new centres of population are allowed to spring up, so
+that we go on creating fresh slums as fast as we pull down the old
+rookeries. There is the depopulation of the countryside, and the
+influx of foreign paupers into our already overcrowded towns. There is
+the undermining of old-established and valuable British industries by
+unfair foreign competition. That is not an exhaustive list, but it is
+sufficient to illustrate my meaning. Well, wherever these and similar
+evils are eating away the health and independence of our working
+people, there the foundations of the Empire are being undermined, for
+it is the race that makes the Empire. Loud is the call to every true
+Unionist, to every true Imperialist, to come to the rescue.
+
+And now at the risk of wearying you there is one other subject to
+which I would like specially to refer, lest I should be accused of
+deliberately giving it the go-by, and that is the question of old age
+pensions. It is not a reform altogether of the same nature as those on
+which I have been dwelling, nor is it perhaps the kind of reform about
+which I feel the greatest enthusiasm, because I would rather attack
+the causes, which lead to that irregularity of employment and that
+under-payment which prevents people from providing for their own old
+age themselves, than merely remedy the evils arising from it. But I
+accept the fact that under present conditions, which it may be that a
+progressive policy in time will alter, a sufficient case for State aid
+in the matter of old age pensions has been made out, and I believe
+that no party is going to oppose the introduction of old age pensions.
+But, on the other hand, I foresee great difficulties and great
+disputes over the question of the manner in which the money is to be
+provided. I know how our Radical friends will wish to provide the
+money. They will want to get it, in the first instance, by starving
+the Army and the Navy. To that way of providing it I hope the Unionist
+Party, however unpopular such a course may be, and however liable to
+misrepresentation it may be, will oppose an iron resistance, because
+this is an utterly rotten and bad way of financing old age pensions,
+or anything else. But that method alone, however far it is carried,
+will not provide money enough, and there will be an attempt to raise
+the rest by taxes levied exclusively on the rich. I am against that
+also, because it is thoroughly wrong in principle. I am not against
+making the rich pay, to the full extent of their capacity, for great
+national purposes, even for national purposes in which they have no
+direct interest. But I am not prepared to see them made to pay
+exclusively. Let all pay according to their means. It is a thoroughly
+vicious idea that money should be taken out of the pocket of one man,
+however rich, in order to be put into the pocket of another, however
+poor. That is a bad, anti-national principle, and I hope the
+Unionist Party will take a firm stand against it. And this is an
+additional reason why we should raise whatever money may be necessary
+by duties upon foreign imports, because in that way all will
+contribute. No doubt the rich will contribute the bulk of the money
+through the duties on imported luxuries, but there will be some
+contribution, as there ought to be some contribution, from every class
+of the people.
+
+And now, in conclusion, one word about purely practical
+considerations. We Unionists, if you will allow me to call myself a
+Unionist--at any rate I have explained quite frankly what I mean by
+the term--are not a class party, but a national party. That being so,
+it is surely of the utmost importance that men of all classes should
+participate in every branch and every grade of the work of the
+Unionist Party. Why should we not have Unionist Labour members as well
+as Radical Labour members? I think that the working classes of this
+country are misrepresented in the eyes of the public of this country
+and of the world, as long as they appear to have no leaders in
+Parliament except the men who concoct and pass those machine-made
+resolutions with which we are so familiar in the reports of Trade
+Union Congresses. I am not speaking now about their resolutions on
+trade questions, which they thoroughly understand, but about
+resolutions on such subjects as foreign politics, the Army and Navy,
+and Colonial and Imperial questions, resolutions which are always
+upon the same monotonous lines. I do not believe that the working
+classes are the unpatriotic, anti-national, down-with-the-army,
+up-with-the-foreigner, take-it-lying-down class of Little Englanders
+that they are constantly represented to be. I do not believe it for a
+moment. I have heard Imperial questions discussed by working men in
+excellent speeches, not only eloquent speeches, but speeches showing a
+broad grasp and a truly Imperial spirit, and I should like speeches of
+that kind to be heard in the House of Commons as an antidote to the
+sort of preaching which we get from the present Labour members. And
+what I say about the higher posts in the Unionist Army applies equally
+to all other ranks. No Unionist member or Unionist candidate is really
+well served unless he has a number of men of the working class on what
+I may call his political staff. And I say this not merely for
+electioneering reasons. This is just one of the cases in which
+considerations of party interest coincide--I wish they always or often
+did--with considerations of a higher character. There is nothing more
+calculated to remove class prejudice and antagonism than the
+co-operation of men of different classes on the same body for the same
+public end. And there is this about the aims of Unionism, that they
+are best calculated to teach the value of such co-operation; to bring
+home to men of all classes their essential inter-dependence on one
+another, as well as to bring home to each individual the pettiness and
+meanness of personal vanity and ambition in the presence of anything
+so great, so stately, as the common heritage and traditions of the
+British race.
+
+
+
+
+SWEATED INDUSTRIES
+
+Oxford, December 5, 1907
+
+
+This exhibition is one of a series which are being held in different
+parts of the country with the object of directing attention, or rather
+of keeping it directed, to the conditions under which a number of
+articles, many of them articles of primary necessity, are at present
+being produced, and with the object also of improving the lot of the
+people engaged in the production of those articles. Now this matter is
+one of great national importance, because the sweated workers are
+numbered by hundreds of thousands, and because their poverty and the
+resulting evils affect many beside themselves, and exercise a
+depressing influence on large classes of the community. What do we
+mean by sweating? I will give you a definition laid down by a
+Parliamentary Committee, which made a most exhaustive inquiry into
+the subject: "Unduly low rates of wages, excessive hours of work, and
+insanitary condition of the workplaces." You may say that this is a
+state of things against which our instincts of humanity and charity
+revolt. And that is perfectly true, but I do not propose to approach
+the question from that point of view to-day. I want to approach it
+from the economic and political standpoint. But when I say political I
+do not mean it in any party sense. This is not a party question; may
+it never become one. The organisers of this exhibition have done what
+lay in their power to prevent the blighting and corrosive influence of
+party from being extended to it. The fact that the position which I
+occupy at this moment will be occupied to-morrow by the wife of a
+distinguished member of the present Government (Mrs. Herbert
+Gladstone), and on Saturday by a leading member of the Labour Party
+(Mr. G.N. Barnes, M.P.), shows that this is a cause in which people of
+all parties can co-operate. The more we deal with sweating on these
+lines, the more we deal with it on its merits or demerits without
+ulterior motive, the more likely we shall be to make a beginning in
+the removal of those evils against which our crusade is directed.
+
+My view is, that the sweating system impoverishes and weakens the
+whole community, because it saps the stamina and diminishes the
+productive power of thousands of workers, and these in their turn drag
+others down with them. "Unduly low rates of wages, excessive hours of
+labour, insanitary condition of workplaces"--what does all that mean?
+It means an industry essentially rotten and unsound. To say that the
+labourer is worthy of his hire is not only the expression of a natural
+instinct of justice, but it embodies an economic truth. One does not
+need to be a Socialist, not, at least, a Socialist in the sense in
+which the word is ordinarily used, as designating a man who desires
+that all instruments of production should become common property--one
+does not need to be a Socialist in that sense in order to realise that
+an industry, which does not provide those engaged in it with
+sufficient to keep them in health is essentially unsound. Used-up
+capital must be replaced, and of all forms of capital the most
+fundamental and indispensable is the human energy necessarily consumed
+in the work of production. A sweated industry does not provide for the
+replacing of that kind of capital. It squanders its human material. It
+consumes more energy in the work it exacts than the remuneration it
+gives is capable of replacing. The workers in sweated industries are
+not able to live on their wages. As it is, they live miserably, grow
+old too soon, and bring up sickly children. But they would not live at
+all, were it not for the fact that their inadequate wages are
+supplemented, directly, in many cases, by out-relief, and indirectly
+by numerous forms of charity. In one way or another the community has
+to make good the inefficiency that sweating produces. In one way or
+another the community ultimately pays, and it is my firm belief that
+it pays far more in the long run under the present system than if all
+workers were self-supporting. If a true account could be kept, it
+would be found that anything which the community gains by the
+cheapness of articles produced under the sweating system is more than
+outweighed by the indirect loss involved in the inevitable subsidising
+of a sweated industry. That would be found to be the result, even if
+no account were taken of the greatest loss of all, the loss arising
+from the inefficiency of the sweated workers and of their children,
+for sweating is calculated to perpetuate inefficiency and
+degeneration.
+
+The question is: Can anything be done? Of the three related
+evils--unduly low rates of wages, excessive hours of labour, and
+insanitary condition of work-places--it is evident that the first
+applies equally to sweated workers in factories and at home, but the
+two others are to some extent guarded against, in factories, by
+existing legislation. This is the reason why some people would like to
+see all work done for wages transferred to factories. Broadly
+speaking, I sympathise with that view. But if it were universally
+carried out at the present moment, it would inflict an enormous amount
+of suffering and injustice on those who add to their incomes by home
+work. Hence the problem is twofold. First, can we extend to workers in
+their own homes that degree or protection in respect of hours and
+sanitary conditions which the law already gives to workers in
+factories? And secondly, can we do anything to obtain for sweated
+workers, whether in homes or factories, rates of remuneration less
+palpably inadequate? Now it certainly seems impossible to limit the
+hours of workers, especially adult workers, in their own homes. More
+can be done to ensure sanitary conditions of work. Much has been done
+already, so far as the structural condition of dwellings is concerned.
+But I am afraid that the measures necessary to introduce what may be
+called the factory standard of sanitariness into every room, where
+work is being done for wages, would involve an amount of inspection
+and interference with the domestic lives of hundreds of thousands of
+people which might create such unpopularity as to defeat its own
+object. I do not say that nothing more should be attempted in that
+direction, quite the reverse; but I say that nothing which can be
+attempted in that direction really goes to the root of the evil, which
+is the insufficiency of the wage. How can you possibly make it healthy
+for a woman, living in a single room, perhaps with children, but even
+without, to work twelve or fourteen hours a day for seven or eight
+shillings a week, and at the same time to do her own cooking, washing,
+and so on. How much food is she likely to have? How much time will be
+hers to keep the place clean and tidy? An increase of wages would not
+make sanitary regulations unnecessary, but it would make their
+observance more possible.
+
+An increase of wages then is the primary condition of any real
+improvement in the lives of the sweated workers. So the point is this.
+Can we do anything by law to screw up the remuneration of the
+worst-paid workers to the minimum necessary for tolerable human
+existence? I know that many people think it impossible, but my answer
+is that the fixing of a limit below which wages shall not fall is
+already not the exception but the rule in this country. That may seem
+a rather startling statement, but I believe I can prove it. Take the
+case of the State, the greatest of all employers. The State does not
+allow the rates of pay even of its humblest employes to be decided by
+the scramble for employment. The State cannot afford, nor can any
+great municipality afford, to pay wages on which it is obviously
+impossible to live. There would be an immediate outcry. Here then you
+have a case of vast extent in which a downward limit of wages is fixed
+by public opinion. Take, again, any of the great staple industries of
+the country, the cotton industry, the iron and steel industry, and
+many others. In the case of these industries rates of remuneration are
+fixed in innumerable instances by agreement between the whole body of
+employers in a particular trade and district on the one hand and the
+whole body of employes on the other. The result is to exclude
+unregulated competition and to secure the same wages for the same
+work. No doubt there is an element--and this is a point of great
+importance--which enters into the determination of wages in these
+organised trades, but which does not enter in the same degree into the
+determination of the salaries paid by the State. That element is the
+consideration of what the employers can afford to pay. This question
+is constantly being threshed out between them and the workpeople,
+with resulting agreements. The number of such agreements is very
+large, and the provisions contained in them often regulate the rate of
+remuneration for various classes of workers with the greatest
+minuteness. But the great object, and the principal effect of all
+these agreements, is this: it is to ensure uniformity of remuneration,
+the same wage for the same work, and to protect the most necessitous
+and most helpless workers from being forced to take less than the
+employers can afford to pay. Broadly speaking, the rate of pay, in
+these highly organised industries, is determined by the value of the
+work and not by the need of the worker. That makes an enormous
+difference. But in sweated industries this is not the case. Sweated
+industries are the unorganised industries, those in which there is no
+possibility of organisation among the workers. Here the individual
+worker, without resources and without backing, is left, in the
+struggle of unregulated competition, to take whatever he can get,
+regardless of what others may be getting for the same work and-of the
+value of the work itself. Hence the extraordinary inequality of
+payment for the same kind of work and the generally low average of
+payment which are the distinguishing features of all sweated
+industries.
+
+Now, if you have followed this rather dry argument, I shall probably
+have your concurrence when I say, that the proposal that the State
+should intervene to secure, not an all-round minimum wage, but the
+same wages for the same work, and nothing less than the standard rate
+of his particular work for every worker, is not a proposition that the
+State should do something new, or exceptional, or impracticable. It is
+a proposal that the State should do for the weakest and most helpless
+trades what the strongly-organised trades already do for themselves. I
+cannot see that there is anything unreasonable, much less
+revolutionary or subversive, in that suggestion.
+
+This proposal has taken practical form in a Bill presented to the
+House of Commons last session. Whether the measure reached its second
+reading or not I do not know. It was a Bill for the establishment of
+Wages Boards in certain industries employing great numbers of
+workpeople, such as tailoring, shirtmaking, and so on. The industries
+selected were those in which the employes, though numerous, are
+hopelessly disorganised and unable to make a bargain for themselves.
+And the Bill provided that where any six persons, whether masters or
+employes, applied to the Home Secretary for the establishment of a
+Wages Board, such a Board should be created in the particular industry
+and district concerned; that it should consist of representatives of
+employers and employed in equal proportions, with an impartial
+chairman; and that it should have the widest possible discretion to
+fix rates of remuneration. If Wages Boards were established, as the
+Bill proposed, they would simply do for sweated trades what is already
+constantly being done in organised trades, with no doubt one important
+difference, that the decisions of these Boards would be enforceable by
+law. Now that no doubt may seem to many of you a drastic proposition.
+But I would strongly recommend any one interested in the subject to
+study a recently-published Blue-book, one of the most interesting I
+have ever read, which contains the evidence given before the House of
+Commons Committee on Home Work. That Blue-book throws floods of light
+on the conditions which have led to the proposal of Wages Boards, on
+the way in which these Boards would be likely to work, and on the
+results of the operation of such Boards in the Colony of Victoria,
+where they have existed for more than ten years, and now apply to more
+than forty industries. The perusal of that evidence would, I feel
+sure, remove some at least of the most obvious objections to this
+proposed remedy for sweating.
+
+Many people look askance, and justly look askance, at the interference
+of the State in anything so complicated and technical as a schedule of
+wages for any particular industry. But the point to bear in mind is
+this, that the wages, which under this proposal would be enforceable
+by law, would be wages that had been fixed for a particular industry
+in a particular district by persons intimately cognisant with all the
+circumstances, and, more than that, by persons having the deepest
+common interest to avoid anything which could injure the industry. The
+rates of remuneration so arrived at would be based on the
+consideration of what the employers could afford to pay and yet retain
+such a reasonable rate of profit as would lead to their remaining in
+the industry. Such a regulation of wages would be as great a
+protection to the best employers against the cut-throat competition of
+unscrupulous rivals as it would be to the workers against being
+compelled to sell their labour for less than its value. There is
+plenty of evidence that the regulation of wages would be welcomed by
+many employers. And as for the fear sometimes expressed, that it would
+injure the weakest and least efficient workers, because, with
+increased wages, it would no longer be profitable to employ them, it
+must be borne in mind that people of that class are mainly home
+workers, and as remuneration for home work must be based on the piece,
+there would be no reason why they should not continue to be employed.
+No doubt they would not benefit as much as more efficient workers from
+increased rates, but _pro tanto_ they would still benefit, and that is
+a consideration of great importance. But even if this were not the
+case, I would still contend, that it was unjustifiable to allow
+thousands of people to remain in a preventable state of misery and
+degradation all their lives, merely in order to keep a tenth of their
+number out of the workhouse a few years longer.
+
+I have only one more word to say. I come back to the supreme interest
+of the community in the efficiency and welfare of all its members, to
+say nothing of the removal of the stain upon its honour and conscience
+which continued tolerance of this evil involves. That to my mind is
+the greatest consideration of all. That is the true reason, as it
+would be the sufficient justification, for the intervention of the
+State. And, or my own part, I feel no doubt that, whether by the
+adoption of such a measure as we have been considering, or by some
+other enactment, steps will before long be taken for the removal of
+this national disgrace.
+
+
+
+     Printed by BALLANTYNE & CO. LIMITED
+     Tavistock Street, London
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Fundamental Fallacies of Free Trade
+
+By L.S. AMERY
+
+(FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD)
+
+_Price 2s. net._
+
+
+These "Four Addresses on the Logical Groundwork of the Free Trade
+Theory," as they are described by the author on the title-page, are
+nothing less than a frontal attack on the dogmas of the Manchester
+School, as sacrificing the permanent interests of the nation to the
+ephemeral interests of the individual. They are bound on account of
+their originality and ability to provoke considerable controversy, and
+to compel the Cobdenites to make some attempt at an answer. The
+chapters are successively entitled "The Individualist Fallacy," "The
+Capitalist Fallacy," "The Trade Fallacy," and "Free Trade Psychology
+and Free Trade History."
+
+This is essentially a book to be read, marked, learned, and inwardly
+digested by all serious students of public affairs.
+
+
+THE "NATIONAL REVIEW" OFFICE 23 RYDER STREET, ST. JAMES'S, LONDON, S.W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   THE
+ NATIONAL
+  REVIEW
+
+ EDITED BY L.J. MAXSE
+
+ Price 2s. 6d. net
+
+ Monthly
+
+ Established 24 Years
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     The OUTLOOK says:
+
+     "Its pages are packed with vital writing ... foreign and
+     domestic affairs are discussed with masculine ability and
+     vigour ... a monthly survey of Imperial affairs such as no
+     other publication offers."
+
+
+     The SPECTATOR says:
+
+     "We do not hesitate to say that the 'National's Episodes'
+     are among the most brilliant, if, indeed, not the most
+     brilliant, contributions to modern political journalism.
+     Their verve, their fearlessness, their independence, and
+     their sincerity would alone render them remarkable; but in
+     addition they are written in a style as clear and buoyant as
+     it is picturesque and unconventional."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Distinctive Features of the "National Review"_
+
+"EPISODES OF THE MONTH"
+
+An incisive commentary on Home and Foreign Affairs
+
+"AMERICAN AFFAIRS"
+
+By A. MAURICE LOW
+
+An indispensable guide to American Politics
+
+"GREATER BRITAIN AND INDIA"
+
+An invaluable review of Imperial events
+
+POLICY OF THE "NATIONAL REVIEW"
+
+To discuss each subject on its merits from the national standpoint
+without fear, favour, or partisan bias
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To those who wish to become acquainted with the "National Review," a
+specimen copy will be sent, post free, on application to the Manager.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     23 RYDER STREET,
+     ST. JAMES'S,
+     LONDON, S.W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Constructive Imperialism, by Viscount Milner
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSTRUCTIVE IMPERIALISM ***
+
+***** This file should be named 15681.txt or 15681.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/8/15681/
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading (https://www.pgdp.net).
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/15681.zip b/15681.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..17c96bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15681.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..599e886
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #15681 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15681)