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diff --git a/20805.txt b/20805.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1695344 --- /dev/null +++ b/20805.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4052 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lloyd George, by Frank Dilnot + +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: Lloyd George + The Man and His Story + +Author: Frank Dilnot + +Release Date: March 13, 2007 [EBook #20805] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LLOYD GEORGE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Photograph of David Lloyd George] + + + + + +LLOYD GEORGE + +THE MAN AND HIS STORY + + +BY + +FRANK DILNOT + + + +AUTHOR OF + +"THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH" + + + + +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS + +NEW YORK AND LONDON + + + + +LLOYD GEORGE: THE MAN AND HIS STORY + + +Copyright, 1917, by Harper & Brothers + +Printed in the United States of America + +Published March, 1917 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +FOREWORD + + I. THE VILLAGE COBBLER WHO HELPED THE BRITISH EMPIRE + II. HOW LLOYD GEORGE BECAME FAMOUS AT TWENTY-FIVE + III. FIGHTING THE LONE HAND + IV. THE DAREDEVIL STATESMAN + V. THE FIRST GREAT TASK + VI. HOW LLOYD GEORGE BROKE THE HOUSE OF LORDS + VII. AT HOME AND IN DOWNING STREET + VIII. A CHAMPION OF WAR + IX. THE ALLIANCE WITH NORTHCLIFFE + X. AT HIGH PRESSURE + XI. HIS INCONSISTENCIES + XII. HOW HE BECAME PRIME MINISTER + XIII. THE FUTURE OF LLOYD GEORGE + +APPENDIX--MR. LLOYD GEORGE ON AMERICA AND THE EUROPEAN WAR + + + + +FOREWORD + +Mr. Lloyd George gets a grip on those who read about him, but his +personality is far more powerful and fascinating to those who have +known the man himself, known him during the time his genius has been +forcing him to eminence. He does not fill the eye as a sanctified hero +should; he is too vitally human, too affectionate, too bitter, and he +has, moreover, springs of humor which bubble up continually. (You +cannot imagine an archangel with a sense of humor.) But it is this +very mixture in the man that holds the character student. Lloyd George +is quite unpretentious, loves children, will join heartily in the +chorus of a popular song, and yet there is concealed behind these +softer traits a stark and desperate courage which leads him always to +the policy of make or break. He is flamingly sincere, and yet no +subtler statesman ever walked the boards at Westminster. That is the +man I have seen at close quarters for years. Is it to be wondered at +that he alternately bewilders, attracts, and dominates high-browed +intellectuals? Strangely enough, it is the common people who +understand Lloyd George better than the clever ones. Explain that how +you will. + +I have seen David Lloyd George, present Prime Minister of England, as +the young political free-lance fighting furiously for unpopular causes, +fighting sometimes from sheer love of battle. I have seen him in that +same period in moods of persuasion and appeal pleading the cause of the +inarticulate masses of the poor with an intensity which has thrilled a +placid British audience to the verge of tears. Since then I have seen +him under the venomous attacks of aristocrats and plutocrats in +Parliament when his eyes have sparkled as he has turned on them and +hissed out to their faces words which burned and seared them and caused +them to shake with passion. And in the midst of this orgy of hate +which encircled him I have seen him in his home with his +twelve-year-old blue-eyed daughter Megan curled up in his lap, his face +brimming with merriment as, with her arm around his neck, she asserted +her will in regard to school and holidays over a happy and indulgent +father. That is the kind of man who now rules England, rules her with +an absoluteness granted to no man, king or statesman, since the British +became a nation. A reserved people like the British, conservative by +instinct, with centuries of caste feeling behind them, have +unreservedly and with acclamation placed their fate in the hands of one +who began life as a village boy. It was but recently I was talking +with a blacksmith hammering out horseshoes at Llanystumdwy in Wales who +was a school-mate of Lloyd George in those days not so very long ago. +The Prime Minister still has his home down there and talks to the +blacksmith and to others of his school companions, for he and they are +still one people together, with ties which it is impossible for +statecraft to break--or to forge. I have met Lloyd George in private, +have seen him among his own people at his Welsh home, and for five +years as a journalist I had the opportunity of observing him from the +gallery of the British Houses of Parliament, five years during which he +introduced his famous Budget, forced a fight with the House of Lords, +and broke their power. I purpose to tell in plain words the drama of +the man as I have seen it. + +A year before the war broke out, while he was still bitterly hated by +the Conservatives, I was visiting him at his Welsh home near +Llanystumdwy and he asked me what I thought of the district. I said it +was all very beautiful, as indeed it was. I emphasized my appreciation +by saying that the visitors at the big hotel at Criccieth near by were +one and all enchanted. They were nearly all Conservatives, I pointed +out, and there was just one fly in their ointment. "I know it," said +Lloyd George, vivaciously, with a quick twinkle in his eye. "Here's a +bay like the Bay of Naples, God's great mountains behind, beautiful +woods, and green meadows, and trickling streams--everything the heart +of man can desire, and in the midst of it all HE lives." He paused and +deepened his voice. "Satan in the Garden of Eden," he said. It was +just his twist of humor, but it told a story. Now for the companion +picture. The last time I saw Lloyd George was one dark evening in the +December which has just gone by. It had been a day of big political +happenings; the Asquith Government had resigned, Bonar Law, the +Conservative leader, had been asked by the King to form a Ministry and +had said he could not do so. Lloyd George's name was being bandied +about. In those few fateful hours Britain was without a Government. +At seven o'clock I was at the entrance of the War Office at Whitehall. +Through the dark street an automobile dashed up. The door was opened, +and a silk-hatted man stepped out and passed rapidly into the War +Office, and then the little group of bystanders noticed that the +footman at the door of the automobile was wearing the royal livery. +The silk-hatted visitor was obviously a messenger from King George. +Three minutes later the War Office doors swung open and two men came +hurrying out. The first was the King's messenger, the second was Lloyd +George. The latter's shoulders were hunched with haste, his hat was +pressed deep and irregularly over his forehead, his face, set hard, was +canted forward. He almost scrambled into the conveyance, and three +seconds later the automobile was going at top speed for Buckingham +Palace. The King had sent for Lloyd George to ask him to become his +Prime Minister. + +F. D. + +_January, 1917._ + + + + +LLOYD GEORGE + + +I + +THE VILLAGE COBBLER WHO HELPED THE BRITISH EMPIRE + +One day in the year 1866 a middle-aged cobbler named Richard Lloyd, +occupying a tiny cottage in the village of Llanystumdwy in North Wales, +had a letter delivered to him by the postman which was to alter the +whole of his simple and placid life. It was a letter from his sister +and bore melancholy tidings. The letter told how she had lost her +husband and how she and her two little children were in distress. She +was the mother of the present Prime Minister of Britain. The elder of +her two children, then three years old, was David Lloyd George. + +Miss Lloyd, the sister of Richard Lloyd, the cobbler, had married, a +few years before, a William George who came of farming people in South +Wales. A studious young fellow, he had devoted himself to reading, and +presently passed the examinations necessary to become a teacher in the +elementary schools. The countryside offered him no opportunity of +advancement and he migrated to the big city of Manchester, where he +secured a position as master in one of the national schools of the +district. In Manchester were born two children, the elder of whom, +David, was fated in after years to rise to fame. David's birthday was +January 17, 1863. Far indeed were thoughts of future eminence from the +struggling family during that time in Manchester. + +Under the strain of city life the health of William George began to +fail. Country-bred as he was, he pined for the open air of the fields +and the valleys, and very soon the doctor gave him no choice and told +him that if he wished to prolong his life he must leave the city +streets. And so it came about that William George and the two children +forsook Manchester and went back again to country life in South Wales +to a place called Haverfordwest. William George took a farm and for a +year or more he and his wife toiled on it. How much of the work fell +on Mrs. George can only be guessed, but she must have carried a full +share, for her husband's health was undermined, and the home had to be +kept up not only for the sake of her husband, but the children as well. +She was in delicate health, and her efforts must have been arduous and +painful. Withal, destiny had its severest blow still in hand. William +George had not recovered his strength; an attack of pneumonia came upon +him, and his death occurred some few months after leaving Manchester. + +Mrs. George, overwhelmed by the death of her husband, was at the same +time faced by financial difficulties and the problem of maintaining the +existence of herself and her two children. To carry on the farm +single-handed was impossible. There were, moreover, immediate +liabilities to be met. She could find no way out, and the upshot was a +public auction sale of the farm effects and the household furniture. +Three-year-old David, not understanding the tragedy of it all, was +nevertheless impressed by the scene on the day the neighbors came to +bid for, and to buy, the things that made up his mother's home. Even +now he can recall how the tables and chairs from the house, and the +plows and harrows from the fields, were scheduled and ticketed in and +around the homestead and disposed of by the auction to the highest +bidder. He could not understand it, but somewhere deep within the +sensitive child was struck a note of pain, the echoes of which have +never left him throughout his strenuous life. He felt dimly in his +childlike way the loneliness of his mother. He has never forgotten it. +Lonely indeed she was. She had but one friend to turn to, and that one +friend was her brother, Richard Lloyd, the village shoemaker up in +North Wales. To him she wrote and told her story. + +It was her letter which Richard Lloyd paused in his work to read that +day some fifty years ago. This village cobbler, destined unwittingly +to play such an important part in the history of the British Empire, is +still alive and hale and hearty, still lives in his old district. I +saw him recently, a tall, erect, fearless-eyed man, though in the +neighborhood of ninety, perhaps past that age. He had a full beard, +snow-white, and a clean-shaven upper lip, reminiscent of the fashion of +half a century ago. He lives, of course, in comfort now and enjoys a +dignified, happy old age. Vigorous still, he continues to preach in +the chapel of the Nonconformist denomination of which he is a member. +I tried to picture him as he must have been fifty years back, a +studious, middle-aged man, rigidly religious, a confirmed bachelor, +dividing his time between his calling, on the one hand, and the study +of the Bible, on the other. + +He lived at that time a laborious life, frugal by necessity, doing his +duty as he saw it, and I dare say he appeared to a casual observer an +uninteresting village type, a silent man, sincere in his bigoted way, +but colorless as such persons must always be to those of a different +class. To me he will remain one of the most interesting men I have +ever seen. Richard Lloyd read his sister's letter and formed his +resolution. He decided to go to her help. And thus it was he +journeyed to South Wales and brought the widow and her two little boys +up north to Llanystumdwy, where he lived. He installed them in his +cottage, a little two-story residence with a tiny workshop abutting +from it at the side where he carried on his shoe-mending. In front the +main road ran by, twisting its way through the village, and thence +through woods and meadows, and giving access within a mile on either +side to park-lands attached to the big country houses of wealthy people +to whom the village cobbler was a nonentity and a person of a different +order of beings from themselves. They were not to know, these rich +neighbors, that the cobbler was bringing for protection to his humble +home a child destined to be a Prime Minister of the country. Prime +Minister in a crisis of its history. + +Of the little family's years of struggle there are a few glimpses. +Cheerfully Richard Lloyd bent himself to his self-imposed task of +lightening his sister's lot, and Mrs. George worked hard that her +children should not suffer from want. There was no money to spare in +the household. Mrs. George baked bread so as not to take anything from +their small resources for the baker. Twice a week there was a little +meat for the family. Subsequently, as the children grew bigger, a tiny +luxury was here and there found for them. At Sunday morning breakfast, +for example, they received as a treat half an egg each to eat with +their bread-and-butter. In the garden behind the cottage vegetables +were grown to eke out supplies, and it was one of the tasks of young +Lloyd George to dig up the potatoes for the household. + +Llanystumdwy, the boyhood home of Lloyd George, is a picturesque +village, a mile or so from the sea, nestling at the foot of the Snowdon +range. Meadows and woods embower Llanystumdwy. Rushing through the +village a rock-strewn stream pours down from the mountains to the sea, +with the trees on its banks locking their branches overhead in an +irregular green archway. Look westward to the coast from Llanystumdwy +and you have in Carnavon Bay one of the finest seascapes in Britain. +Turn to the east, and the rising mountains culminate in the white +summit of Snowdon and other giant peaks stretching upward through the +clouds. Could Providence have selected a more fitting spot for the +upgrowth of a romantic boy? Lloyd George's Celtic heart had an +environment made for it in this nook between the Welsh mountains and +the sea. Little wonder that he has never left the place. At the +present time his country house is on the slope overlooking Criccieth, +about a mile from the old cobbler's cottage where he spent his boyhood +forty years ago. + +Lloyd George was sent quite early to the church elementary school with +the other village children. There seems to have been nothing of the +copy-book order about his behavior, nor are any moral lessons for the +young to be drawn from it. He set no specially good example, was not +particularly studious, was quite as mischievous if not more so than his +schoolmates, and on top of all this--sad to relate after such a +record--was practically always at the head of his class. He achieved +without effort what others sought to accomplish by hard and persistent +work. He just soaked up knowledge as a sponge soaks up water; he could +not help it. Out of school hours he was a daring youngster filled with +high spirits, and very active. He had dark-blue eyes, blackish hair, a +delicate skin, and regular features, and the audacity within him was +concealed behind a thoughtful, studious expression--just such a boy as +a mother worships. That old Puritan, his uncle, worshiped him, too, +though I am quite sure he concealed the fact behind the gravest and +sometimes the most reproving of demeanors. An interesting point is +that the vivacious and keen-witted child understood and was devoted to +this serious-minded uncle of his. Richard Lloyd worked hard to make +the boy grow up a straight-living, brave, and God-fearing man, and his +influence on his young nephew was strong from the start. There is a +story told about this. The children of the village school (which was +connected with the Established Church of England) on each Ash Wednesday +had to march from the school to the church, and were there made to give +the responses to the Church Catechism and to recite the Apostles' +Creed. That sturdy Nonconformist, Richard Lloyd, denied the right of +the Church of England to force children, many of them belonging to +Nonconformist parents, to go to church to subscribe to the Church +doctrine. Lloyd George carefully digested his uncle's protest, and +went away and organized a revolt among the children. The next time +they went to church they refused to make the responses. Lloyd George +as the ring-leader was punished, but the rebellion he organized stopped +the practice of forcing Church dogmas into the mouths of the children. +This is a very suggestive story. I know the main facts to be true +because not so very long ago Lloyd George himself confirmed them to me. +At the same time I beg leave to doubt whether any great spiritual +fervor was the motive power of Master Lloyd George at that time. It +was just the first outbreak of his desire for revolt against the powers +that be--wicked powers because his uncle had said so--and the +satisfaction of that instinct for audacious action which has marked him +ever since. To me there was not much of the saint about the boy Lloyd +George; he was just a young daredevil--which, on the whole, is perhaps +the more attractive. + +By the time Lloyd George was ten or eleven years of age his mother and +his uncle became filled with thoughts as to his future. They both knew +the boy was specially gifted, both realized that unless special effort +were made he must inevitably drift from school into the lower ranks of +labor, probably that of work on a farm. There were long and anxious +consultations between the cobbler and his sister. Finally Richard +Lloyd came to a decision, a decision which was to have a lasting effect +on the destinies of the British nation. He resolved on a noble act, +the nobler in that he had no idea what tremendous consequences would +spring from it. + +By long years of work and self-denial he had saved a little sum toward +his old age. It amounted to a few hundred pounds. It was all he had. +He decided to devote that sum toward the making of his nephew, Lloyd +George, an educated man, toward putting him in a profession where he +might have a chance in the world. + +After the great speculation had been decided on it was settled that +young David should be brought up as a solicitor. This necessitated not +only the provision of certain heavy fees in connection with the +examinations, but also time spent in a prolonged course of study. The +few hundreds of pounds was a small-enough amount, and it was obvious +that it would have to be sparingly expended if it were to cover all +that was required. Young Lloyd George was a brilliant youth, but even +his brilliancy could not help beyond a certain point. The old cobbler +saw one way of economizing. He set himself the task of personally +learning the elements of French and Latin in order to impart them to +his nephew. I have often imagined the mental agony of the cobbler +struggling with those foreign grammars. But he succeeded. His nephew +also succeeded. Young George passed his preliminary examination and +his intermediate without difficulty. Then while he progressed further +he had to have experience in a solicitor's office--which ran away with +more money. At twenty-one, however, he was finished, and was admitted +a solicitor. All that had been gone through for him to reach this goal +is shown by the fact that, having been formally enrolled as a lawyer, +he and his family at that time could not raise the three guineas +necessary to purchase the official robe without which he could not +practise in the local courts. He at once went out and worked in an +office and earned that three guineas. + +He was now launched in the world. The great adventure of life began +almost immediately for him. + + + + +II + +HOW LLOYD GEORGE BECAME FAMOUS AT TWENTY-FIVE + +The personalities of history flash across our vision like +shooting-stars in the sky, emerging from hidden origins, making for +their unknown goal with a speed and brilliance at once spectacular and +mysterious. They are incalculable forces; we can only look at them and +wonder at them. It is futile and quite useless to try to define the +secret motive power of these personalities by puny analyses of moral +influences and by a catalogue of their feelings and surroundings. They +follow their destined course and raise our admiration or our fears and +all the while they give us no real clue to the powers within their +souls or the end they serve. + +There had been many endeavors to link up Lloyd George with certain sets +of beliefs; sincere persons have associated his prominence with his +Liberalism, with his Nonconformity, with his passion for the interests +of the poor, and in these later days with his fervor for national and +patriotic effort. As a matter of fact, the framing of his dogmas has +had little or nothing to do with the power of the man. He is one of +those persons whom nature has made of dynamite; who would have blasted +a way for himself in any kind of conditions. It is neither to his +credit nor to his discredit that Heaven has given him an individuality +which has taken him throughout life to distinction and high +achievement. He has always swung to his tasks like a needle to the +Pole. + +It so happened that by the surroundings of his youth--the piety and +pride and modest circumstances of his uncle and his mother--he was +early thrown into certain spheres of activity. But these spheres were +merely the medium for his powers. A wider survey than that of the +enthusiastic Nonconformist or the patriotic Welshman shows that Lloyd +George's nature would have cleaved its way like a sword through any +obstacle in any cause. He simply could not have helped it. Destiny +had set a mark on him from birth. + +He was only seventeen when on a visit to London he went for the first +time to the House of Commons to listen to the proceedings from the +gallery and here is an abstract from his diary at that period: "Went to +Houses of Parliament. Very much disappointed with them. . . . I will +not say I eyed the assembly in the spirit in which William the +Conqueror eyed England on his visit to Edward the Confessor--as the +region of his future domain. O Vanity!" A country youth without +money, without prospects, sitting in the exclusive Parliament House of +the most exclusive nation of the world, watched the assembly before him +and there occurred to him the thought of conquering it single-handed. +That is what it came to. Of course his reference is in the nature of a +joke. It could hardly be otherwise. But it was a joke which has +proved to be a prophecy. + +Before he was seventeen Lloyd George had already dived deep into +controversy. His school of debating consisted of the cobbler's +workshop and the village smithy at Llanystumdwy, where in the evenings +young men and old men and a sprinkling of boys used to assemble to +discuss in a haphazard way questions of ethics, the politics of the +day, and most of all the rights and wrongs of the religious sects to +which they respectively belonged. Richard Lloyd, on the one hand, and +the old blacksmith, on the other, would stir the discussion now and +again with a sagacious word. It is easy to imagine the ripple of +musical Welsh which sometimes drowned the tap-tap of the cobbler's +hammer, or was submerged beneath the clang of the anvil. The bright +eyes and excited faces of these Celts partly illumined by the oil-lamp +or by the sudden glow of the blacksmith's furnace must have provided +pictures worth record for themselves, quite apart from the personal +interest they would now possess. + +In the midst of the discussions young David would plunge with a wit and +understanding beyond his years, and he stood up to his seniors with +both gravity and audacity. "Do you know," said the gray-haired +blacksmith to Richard Lloyd one day, "I really had to turn my serious +attention to David last evening or he would have got the best of me." + +If any of those who read this narrative are beginning to have an idea +that this fourteen-year-old boy was by way of becoming a prig they may +be relieved by the knowledge that when the youngster was not taking a +hand in polemics in the smithy or the cobbler's cottage he was often +enough leading the boys of the village into some kind of mischief. One +old inhabitant came to have the fixed belief that David was the origin +of pretty well all the mishaps in Llanystumdwy. Let a gate be found +lifted from its hinges, a fence or hedge broken down, or windows +smashed, and the old man had the one explanation, "It's that David +Lloyd at it again." + +It is important to know that Richard Lloyd, the shoemaker, was not only +studious and intelligent, but was independent beyond his class. A kind +of benevolent feudalism still existed in the district, and villagers at +election time fell naturally into the groove required by the rich +landowners and gentlefolk of the neighborhood. Once at an election +three or four of the cottagers voted Liberal instead of Conservative. +They were promptly turned out of their dwellings. The time came when +the shoemaker was the only Liberal voter in the place. He remained +quite unshaken by persuasion, influence, or material considerations. +Lloyd George even as a young boy gloried in his stalwart uncle. He was +rebellious that it should be possible to cow other people, and the +knowledge of the prevalent thraldom poured deep into young Lloyd +George's soul. This simple religious village folk lived hard, with but +a week's wages between them and want, lived, so to speak, on sufferance +under the vicar and squire and land-owner, who, while often kindly +enough and even generous in their way, expected obedience, and who +exacted servitude in all matters of opinion. The big people and the +cottage folk were two entirely different sets of beings. What a +precipice there was between them can hardly be understood by those who +have not passed some time in the village life of Britain. A man who +took a rabbit or hare from the preserved coverts of game extending for +miles in all directions was rigorously prosecuted as a criminal. A man +who took fish from prohibited waters was often a good deal more harshly +adjudged than the drunken brute who beat his wife or the assailant in +some desperate fight. And let it be noted that these superior people +had veritable power of government, for from them were drawn the benches +of magistrates--amateur local judges, who sat weekly or monthly, as the +case might be, to punish evil-doers of the district. Many of these +people in some of the relations of life were quite admirable, but when +it came to any question of the protection of privilege, the +preservation of property, or the rights in general of their superior +class, these landowners were as merciless in the North Wales district +as in many other parts of the country. Scorn and rage grew in the +heart of young Lloyd George as he realized that these individuals had +no claim over their fellows in personal worth or understanding, that +they were practically unassailable by reason of their ramparts of +wealth, that they lived in comfort, if not in luxury, while those whom +they dominated were struggling hard for a bare subsistence. I can +imagine the youth reciting the couplet which sets out the position: + + God bless the squire and his relations, + And keep us in our proper stations. + + +Worldly knowledge and bookish knowledge were acquired by Lloyd George +during the next few years while he was going through his law course in +the office of a firm of solicitors in the neighboring little town of +Portmadoc. While there he had further opportunity for developing his +natural powers of oratory, for he became a member of a local debating +society which regularly had set battles on all kinds of +topics--political, literary, and social. At twenty-one his +preliminaries ended and he became an admitted solicitor competent to +practise law and to appear as an advocate in the local civil and +criminal courts. He was penniless, he had no friends likely to help +him in his profession. But he had confidence in himself. Hidden fires +were burning behind those steady dark-blue eyes of his. The office +work which he undertook to secure the money to buy his official robe +was accomplished with a run. Then he put up a little brass plate +announcing to all and sundry in the locality that he was prepared to +practise law. Though he had no rich friends, he possessed certain +assets in the reputation he had made among the residents of the +district by his sparkling good humor, his ready sympathy with distress, +and his vivacious wit in debate. Individuals of the humbler class soon +began to come to the young solicitor for advice and assistance. He +found himself engaged to defend people charged with small offenses +before the local magistrates and to fight cases connected with small +money transactions before the county court--which was the civil +tribunal. Clients found in the young fellow not only a shrewd lawyer, +but a friend who entered into their cases with ardor. + +He differed from other lawyers of the country towns, men who had grown +prosperous in their profession, in so far as he always put up a +tremendous fight, whatever the chances of success. He was, moreover, +never hampered by deference for the bench. It was the practice of the +magistrates, most of them local land-owners and all of them belonging +to the propertied classes, to browbeat any local solicitors who showed +signs of presumption--that is to say, of independence and lack of what +was regarded as proper respect in their conduct of cases before the +court. Lloyd George said things and did things which the most +experienced and successful solicitors of the district would have shrunk +from as ruinous to their business. He made it a practice never to +waste a word in any subservience to magistrates who showed an +overbearing disposition. The magistrates, to their amazement, found +they could not overawe the young upstart. When one realizes the +unchallenged caste rule of those local bigwigs and the extraordinary +respect which was paid to them by advocates and litigants alike, it is +easy to understand the amazement and the shock which came upon them +when young Lloyd George not only refused to submit to their bullying, +but stood up to them and even thrust wounding words at them. It was an +unheard-of proceeding. Some of these magistrates, lifelong supporters +of Church and state, must sometimes have wondered why the presumptuous +youth was not struck dead by Providence for his temerity. He, on his +part, was never so happy as when he was shocking them. Clients quickly +grew in number. The farmers found him an enthusiastic defender of +their rights, the shopkeepers trusted him with their small business +worries, and if there were any poachers to be defended where was there +to be found so able, so sympathetic, and so fearless an advocate as +young Lloyd George? All this time it must be remembered he was but +early in the twenties, little more than a boy. + +Many instances might be given of his audacity in the face of the lordly +magistrates before whom he appeared. Here is one that is typical. +Lloyd George was retained to defend four men who were charged with +illegally taking fish from prohibited waters--in other words, accused +of poaching, the most deadly sin of all to the owners of the land. The +case was tried before a big bench of magistrates, all of them local +celebrities. Early in the proceedings Lloyd George put in a plea that +the court had no jurisdiction in the matter. In response the +chairman--the presiding magistrate--replied grandiloquently that such a +point must be decided by a higher court. + +"Yes, sir," said Lloyd George, "and in a perfectly just and unbiased +court." + +The magistrate stared open-eyed at this impudence, and promptly +proceeded to put Lloyd George in his place. "If," said he, "that +remark is intended as a reflection on any magistrate sitting on this +bench I hope Mr. George will name him. A more insulting and +ungentlemanly remark to the bench I have never heard during my +experience as a magistrate." + +"Yes," replied Lloyd George, "and a more true remark was never made in +any court of justice." + +This was more than flesh and blood could stand. In admonitory tone the +chairman said: "Tell me to whom you are referring. I must insist upon +your stating if you are referring to any magistrate sitting in this +court." + +"I refer to you in particular, sir," said Lloyd George. + +"Then I retire from the bench," said the chairman, rising from his +place. He turned to his fellow-magistrates. "This is the first time I +have ever been insulted in a court of justice." + +In company with a colleague he left the court. A third magistrate +remarked that he could not proceed with the case until Lloyd George had +apologized. + +"I am glad to hear it," said Lloyd George, imperturbably. Promptly +another magistrate went out. One of the few justices remaining +repeated the demand for an apology. Instead of apologizing Lloyd +George made the following reply; "I say this, that at least two or +three magistrates of this court are bent upon securing a conviction +whether there is a fair case or not. I am sorry the chairman left the +court, because I am in a position to prove what I have said. I shall +not withdraw anything, because every word I have spoken is true." + +This was really too much. All the lot of the magistrates went out, +their departure being accompanied by the few barbed words from the +young advocate. What happened when the magistrates got together +outside the courtroom can only be guessed. They must have had a +painful discussion among themselves, because presently four of them +came in and rather meekly said they would try the case, though they +again made a protest to the effect that Lloyd George really ought to +apologize. Of course he did not do so. + +It was when Lloyd George was twenty-five and was already a highly +popular figure throughout a large part of Wales that he sprang suddenly +into a wider notice and may be said to have had for the first time the +eyes of the whole country centered on him. Wales is a country of +Nonconformists who attend religious services in their own chapels and +do not--at least the great majority of them--belong to the Established +Church of England. The state Church, however, is implanted throughout +the country, and it is only to be expected that local friction should +sometimes arise. + +In a village at the foot of Snowdon an old quarryman died, and before +he passed away expressed the wish that he should be laid by the side of +his daughter, who was buried in the graveyard of the Church of England. +The Church clergyman would not consent to the Nonconformist rites being +performed if the old man were buried where he desired to be. The old +man, he said, could not be placed by the side of his daughter, but must +be buried in a remote portion of the graveyard reserved for unknown +people and for suicides. The Nonconformists of the village were +outraged at the suggestion. They went to young Lloyd George and asked +his advice about the matter. Lloyd George plunged deep into legal +enactments, into the local conditions, and all the facts pertaining to +the case. Then he delivered a characteristic judgment. "You have the +right," he said, "to bury this man by the side of his daughter in the +churchyard. If the clergyman refuses you permission proceed with the +body to the graveyard. Take the coffin in by force, if necessary. If +the churchyard gates are locked against you, break them down." The +villagers faithfully followed the suggestion of the young lawyer. They +took the body to the churchyard--I believe Lloyd George accompanied +them--and they broke down the locked churchyard gates, dug a grave for +the old man by the side of his daughter, and buried him there. The +Church authorities were scandalized and an action at law was the +result. It was heard in the local county court before a judge and +jury. Lloyd George defended the villagers, and the jury, influenced by +his speech, returned a verdict in their favor. The judge, however, +said that Lloyd George was wrong on a point of law and decided the case +on the side of the Church. Lloyd George instantly said that the matter +could not rest, and on behalf of the villagers he appealed against the +decision to the Lord Chief Justice in London. The case was heard by +the Lord Chief and another judge, and they came to the conclusion that +the jury's decision was right, that the county-court judge was wrong, +and that Lloyd George was perfectly correct on the point of law in +connection with which he had been overruled. + +Lloyd George was twenty-five when he secured this triumph. All the +public were interested in the case, and in the Welsh townships and +villages his name flamed out like a beacon. + + + + +III + +FIGHTING THE LONE HAND + +Lloyd George was twenty-five when his fight for the burial of the old +quarryman lifted him to the public notice of the country at large. The +year was a fateful one for him in other respects. For two or three +years before this he had been speaking at public meetings, securing +more and more confidence as he realized his powers. He became the +banner-bearer for the allied causes of democracy, a free Church, and +the rights of Wales as a nation. His compatriots rallied round him as +their forefathers had rallied round Owen Glendower centuries before. + +Working early and late, Lloyd George united his professional +engagements with appearances on the public platform. He was already +rousing those eddies of hatred and that personal devotion on which he +has been borne to fame. Furiously he flung himself into attacks on the +classes from which his political opponents were drawn. He adopted new +methods, he heeded not convention, made always for the thickest of the +fray. All the time there was mixed with his fervor an element of +shrewdness. It was this shrewdness, for instance, which sent him to a +big gathering of his political opponents, where he sat quietly in a +back seat in order to learn what they had to say about him, and +listened to their abuse with keen satisfaction. Gleams of ambition +must have been shooting in upon him by this time. It was impossible +that he had not thoughts of a bigger future for himself, and yet it +came as a thunderclap to him when he heard that he, a youthful +free-lance, had been adopted by the Liberal associations of the +district to be their candidate for Parliament at the next election. It +may be imagined with what zest under this stimulation he carried on his +preparations for the contest whenever it should arise. The +constituency--Carnarvon Boroughs--comprised a group of towns and a +large number of villages. It included castles and mansions and great +estates; a considerable portion of the general body voters were +associated with the landowners and aristocrats. Lloyd George must have +felt it was a pretty hopeless fight, but a fight, nevertheless, which +he would enjoy. + +There is one other event to chronicle during this year when he reached +the age of twenty-five. Upon the mountain slopes beyond Llanystumdwy +was a spacious old farm-house, the home of a sweetly pretty Welsh girl +named Maggie Owen. How or when Lloyd George first met her is not +recorded, but in the course of his diary we come across a significant +entry just before this time. The diary refers to a meeting of a +debating society in which he had taken part, and goes on to relate +"Took Maggie Owen home." It is hard to imagine young Lloyd George +anything but an impetuous lover. His suit progressed, and in this same +fateful year of 1888 he was married. It may be said in passing that +never was a happier union, and that in the hard and adventurous life +that lay before the young politician he found in Mrs. George a true +companion. Marriage seemed to strengthen his ambition, and his vision +began to spread over the general field of politics instead of remaining +exclusively, as hitherto, fixed upon projects of special, if not of +exclusive, interest to Wales. Nevertheless he continued the leading +figure in the fight for reforms in his native country. A good deal of +his enthusiasm, for example, was expended on Church disestablishment in +Wales--that is to say, the separation of the English Church from state +support and state endowment, in view of the fact that the majority of +the people were Nonconformists, and that it was unfair to impose upon +them an unwanted and costly church which they had to help support even +though they were Nonconformist enthusiasts. There is nothing like a +religious controversy to stir feelings strongly, and the conflicts in +the campaign for disestablishment were very bitter. Lloyd George's +chief opponent on the other side was the Bishop of St. Asaph, a prelate +of the Church of England, himself a Welshman and a very able man. He +gave the promoters of disestablishment some hard knocks, and it is +related of him that he was particularly effective in one of the +districts. Accordingly, the Nonconformists there brought down Lloyd +George to speak at a public meeting in order to counteract the bishop's +influence. Lloyd George himself tells the story of how he was +introduced at that meeting by the chairman, a leading deacon of the +village. "We have suffered much of late from misrepresentations," he +said. "The Bishop of St. Asaph has been speaking against us and we all +know that he is a very great liar. Thank God we have a match for him +here to-night in Mr. Lloyd George." In later years when Lloyd George +and the bishop became good friends in spite of their differences of +opinion, it was hard to decide which of them enjoyed this story most. + +Lloyd George began to speak everywhere, at street corners, in +conventicles, in the market-places, at mass-meetings in the public +buildings, and his peculiar oratory secured him larger and larger +audiences and aroused attention, sympathetic or hostile, all over the +constituency. Many who were lukewarm and went to hear him out of +curiosity were swung by his personality into being supporters. He had +always his own natural style of talk. Possessing a musical and clear +voice, he never strained for effect, rarely used a rotund sentence, but +talked to his audiences in a red-hot conversational kind of way, his +heightened feelings finding expression in a sibilance which always +touched the nerves of his hearers. He seldom interrupted interrupters, +finding it more effective to let them speak and then to deal with them +in his own special manner when they had finished. There were +occasionally exceptions to this, however. In the course of one of his +speeches he exclaimed, "What do my opponents really want?" A husky, +hostile voice from the crowd broke in, "What I want is a change of +government." "No," said Lloyd George; "what you really want is a +change of drink." Another time he had begun a sentence with the words +"I am here," when an opponent in the crowd shouted, "So am I." "Yes," +said Lloyd George, "but you are not all there." One of his best +retorts in his early days was to a Conservative who came to a Liberal +meeting determined to stand no nonsense. "We must give home rule," +declared Lloyd George, "not only to Ireland, but to Scotland as well, +and to Wales." "And home rule for hell," shouted a man in the +audience. "Quite right," said Lloyd George; "let every person stick up +for his own country." + +A hard-working young professional man, Lloyd George was in for a heavy +fight and, in the opinion of many, a hopeless fight, when the election +came two years later. It was a dramatic chance that selected for his +Conservative opponent the squire of his native village, the dignitary +to whom Lloyd George as a village lad used to touch his hat. Fierce +excitement ranged throughout the election fight. In the result Lloyd +George snatched victory by just a handful of votes, his poll being one +thousand nine hundred sixty-three against the Conservative total of one +thousand nine hundred forty-five. Lloyd George was twenty-seven at the +time of this triumph and became known as "the boy politician." There +were many sneers among his opponents, who pointed out that this fluent +young demagogue had now reached the end of his tether. In the +environment of the House of Commons, among really clever men, he would +sink to the natural inconsequence from which a series of fortunate +accidents had lifted him. And indeed it was not unnatural for even the +sympathetic observer to feel that perhaps this was the end of Lloyd +George, that the ability which he undoubtedly possessed and which had +carried him a considerable distance was not the ability which could do +any more for him. He had projected himself out of the congenial +surroundings wherein his talents had proved of avail, but, like a spent +rocket, he would now rapidly come to earth. + +It would have been inconceivable to many of his friends and to all of +his opponents that this twenty-seven-year-old M. P. should have +regarded himself as but on the threshold of his work, should have +looked upon what he had achieved merely as preliminaries to his rarely +serious efforts in life. They would have smiled indulgently or +ironically if they had been told at this period the story of Lloyd +George's diary entry after his first visit to the House of Commons at +seventeen. Probably no person on earth but his wife knew the steely +determination behind her husband's impetuosity. + +The young M.P. took his seat in the House of Commons on April 17, 1890. +A Liberal Government was in power. Gladstone, over eighty years of +age, was at the head of it. Political giants whose reputation had +reached young Lloyd George through the newspapers were scattered along +the two front benches. He sat himself down on one of the back seats +and proceeded to look at these men in action and to weigh them up. He +formed some judgments about them. Here is what he wrote about Mr. +Asquith in the course of some work for a Welsh newspaper a little later +on: "A short, thick-set, rather round-shouldered man with a face as +clean shaven as that of the most advanced curate, keen eyes and a +broad, intellectual forehead--he speaks clearly and emphatically. He +sets out his arguments with great brilliancy and force." Little did +the young M. P. think that in the years to come he would be supplanting +this man as Prime Minister of the country. + +Right from the start Lloyd George set himself to acquire the methods +and fashions of the House of Commons, with all the involved procedure. +He wanted to avoid the obvious pitfalls. Presently he essayed a +speech, and though he confessed himself as nervous, he did well, and +members spoke highly of his first effort. It is as well to say here +that the House of Commons quickly cuts short the ambitions and hopes of +many young men who on the strength of platform popularity look for +triumph at Westminster. The House of Commons, whatever may be its +drawbacks, has some human qualities, is kindly to beginners, has a +respect for sincerity, an undisguised yawn for bores, and a cold +contempt for swollen-headed young members who try to impress it with +their capacity. When once a member has passed the stage of initial +forbearance due to a new-comer, there grows upon him the fact that the +House of Commons is indeed the most critical assembly in the world. +There are always within it many who have secured their places by money +or influence, but they are in the minority, and the House, as a whole, +including even these rich men, has never any respect for moneyed men as +such, pays no special deference to the person of lordly birth within +its walls. A member is judged absolutely on what he is himself. The +two most popular and respected members in the strangely mixed House of +Commons I watched for years were Mr. Thomas Burt, the father of the +House, who had been a working miner, and that ardent and lovable Irish +Nationalist, Mr. Willie Redmond--both men having secured in +extraordinary measure the personal affection of the whole House. In +some respects, therefore, the House is like a big public school, and +Conservatives and Liberals, notwithstanding their political +differences, are welded together by a common instinct so far as the +domestic character of the Chamber is concerned. + +The peculiar atmosphere was not lost upon Lloyd George, and he +diligently attuned himself to the new medium. This would have been +unavailing if there had been nothing in his speeches, but it was soon +realized that here was an interesting new member, a man inexperienced +in some directions, but with bold thoughts, apt phrases, and an almost +unpleasant sincerity. He did not take the House by storm, but still he +was listened to. He quickly developed. Within a year his name was +frequently in the newspapers as one of the guerrilla fighters below the +gangway who gave the Government no peace. + +Lloyd George had made up his mind about the statesmen in the House and +had come to a decision that not even the strongest of them was +unassailable. Gladstone led the Government and Lloyd George was his +nominal follower, but on individual matters the young M. P. opposed his +chief. It was rather like a fox-terrier standing up to a lion. +Gladstone had an incomparable prestige, the result of a continuous +half-century of work for his country, including four periods as Prime +Minister. Probably three-quarters of the six hundred and seventy +members of the House of Commons, many of them old politicians, would +have been nervous about tackling Gladstone, who, despite his eighty +years, was still a terrific force in debate, possessing an eagle mien +which subdued opponent and recalcitrant supporters alike. Young Lloyd +George refused to be cowed even by Gladstone. + +Wales was pressing for the disestablishment of the English Church +within its borders, and Lloyd George with two or three other Liberal +members bitterly protested about the postponement of this reform. +Difficulties of immediate parliamentary action, the urgency of other +legislation, the opposition from powerful sections of the House, all +these things were nothing to Lloyd George; what he wanted was the +disestablishment of the Church in Wales. Frequently the Prime Minister +in the British Parliament ignores the attacks of the lesser men. +Gladstone could not ignore Lloyd George. He had to answer him. +Sometimes he condescended to berate him, much to the enjoyment of the +assembly. Lloyd George always came up unhurt, alert, and persistent. + +In 1892 Mr. Gladstone retired, and his place at the head of the Liberal +Government was taken by Lord Rosebery. Lloyd George, in his efforts to +secure the early passage of the Welsh disestablishment bill, continued +to strike hard at his nominal chief until in 1894 came the end of this +particular sphere of his operations, for the Liberal Government was +turned out and a Conservative Government put in its place. This, +however, was Lloyd George's real opportunity. Independent as he had +been in the ranks of his own party, he now found far greater scope as a +foe in opposition to Ministers in power. He went for them, tooth and +nail, making a dead set at Chamberlain, who had taken Gladstone's place +as the leading figure in the House of Commons. Chamberlain himself had +fought his way up. Those who have seen Chamberlain will never forget +him--the long, strong face, the steady, hard eyes, the straight-cut +mouth, the rigidly erect, slim body, the unfailing single eyeglass, and +the orchid in his buttonhole making a picture which can never be +disassociated from will-power, a mind cold and clear, a lucid gift of +speech, unflinching courage, and a savage contempt for weakness or +inefficiency. He had against him in the House of Commons some able +critics, but not more than two or three could really stand up to him in +argument. I believe there was not a single one even of these who dared +to take off the gloves to him in real fighting earnest. Lloyd George +went into opposition with his eyes fixed on Chamberlain. + +From that time onward Lloyd George deliberately fought the Birmingham +statesman on every possible opportunity. In committee, during question +time, at set debate, he pursued him unremittingly. Chamberlain tried +at first to shake him off with a scornful word or two. But Lloyd +George was not to be dismissed as so many others had been. He returned +to the attack like a hornet. He was never appeased, never in doubt, +never content. Chamberlain had presently to take real notice of him. +He turned on the Welshman and with ferocity held him up to scorn and +ridicule--not a difficult task for such a man as Chamberlain, +especially as the majority of the House of Commons were his followers. +Lloyd George certainly had his bad times then. Sometimes his facts +would be proved awry and his arguments fallacious and he would be +harried with merciless sarcasm. He would, in effect, be smashed to +pieces. To the amazement of every one he refused to understand that he +was smashed. After any and every attack he would be swiftly on his +feet, hurling forth fresh accusatory words and ignoring the punishment +he had just received--would be himself the scourger of sin. Sometimes +he even took to imitating Chamberlain's own methods, and pointing a +finger at his distinguished victim, would hiss out his charges word by +word with a vibrant slowness. Even the impassive Chamberlain used +sometimes to color a little under this mimicry. If ever a man went +thoroughly out of his way to be hated it was Lloyd George. But he +gained way. Once under an unsparing attack by Lloyd George, +Chamberlain winced, leaped to his feet, and asked permission to make a +second speech in reply. That was the first occasion which caused +members to say among themselves that Chamberlain, gladiator that he +was, had met his match in Lloyd George. + + + + +IV + +THE DAREDEVIL STATESMAN + +What was the underlying motive in Lloyd George during those years of +feverish combat? Why should he have gone out of his way to deal injury +and to incur enmity? Why was he always in the pose of rebel even when +his friends were in power? Was he anything more than a clever young +politician seeking notoriety by espousing unpopular courses whenever +there was a chance to strike a blow at those high in authority? They +are justifiable questions, and they can be answered quite shortly. +Heaven had given Lloyd George, together with much impulsiveness, the +most sensitive of souls and a kindly heart, together with the +imagination of a poet. Even when he was a boy resentment blazed from +him as he realized the injustices which were suffered by the poorer +people, people who could not raise their voice to protest and who went +on in stolid resignation from childhood to the grave. The example of +his mother, a patient and noble woman, struggling with fate for the +sake of her children, was ever before him. He saw his uncle, a sturdy +Puritan of high character and intelligence, looked down upon, or at +least disapproved of, because of his religious and political opinions, +and this in spite of the fact that Richard Lloyd's beliefs sprang from +selfless emotions and held him in an upright life. As Lloyd George +grew older and mingled with the world he saw how oppression, active or +passive, often went with wealth and power, and that not only material +sustenance, but education and even the right to think, was denied the +vast preponderance of the population by those who through inheritance, +accident, or hardihood had secured the good things of the earth. Every +nerve within him quivered in revolt. And even before he realized the +full extent of the powers that lay within him his ardent spirit was +leaping forward to fight what he regarded as the great giants of +evil--the systems and the customs which gave individuals the power to +hold down those who could not help themselves. He loved his native +land passionately and was saturated with religious feeling, and he was +strung with indignation that the state Church system of England should +continue to be forced upon a nation of Nonconformists, with its +resulting social influence on the people of his land. He was stirred +to the depths by the lives of poor people among whom he had lived his +most impressionable years. Enraged at the mental and moral attitude of +the rich Conservatives who placidly assumed that Providence meant them +to rule the earth and all the lesser horde to bow down to their +inspired will, he was dissatisfied with the stolidity and lethargy of +the official Liberal party, although he himself was a Liberal. When +the Boer War broke out his sense of chivalry and justice was outraged +at the thought that a great people like the British nation should +attempt to crush a tiny pastoral race, even under some provocation. +Thus from the start he devoted himself passionately and whole-heartedly +to the side of the under dog. + +Incidentally in this single-handed fight he took a sardonic delight in +shocking those pillars of society who to him were symbols of the +existing order of things. Fiercely he smashed away at idols, however +highly placed, however much revered. At all times and in all +circumstances he was regardless of consequences to himself, a fact +which, together with his gifts, secured for him a certain measure of +concealed respect even from those who hated him most. Withal, +throughout these years of destructiveness his mind was working toward +the formation of a new order of things. Behind and beyond all his +Ishmaelitish tactics there were thoughts of a reconstruction. He may +have been right or wrong in his courses. At any rate, it is necessary +in a sketch of his career to set out the connecting links in years of +activity which to a casual observer may seem disjointed, variable, and +erratic. + +A notable incident in his career was when, with practically the whole +country inflamed against him, owing to his attitude on the Boer War, he +decided to go down to Birmingham, the seat and stronghold of Joseph +Chamberlain, and address a public meeting in support of his anti-war +policy. Friends tried to dissuade him. He was not to be dissuaded. +Preparations were quickly set afoot in Birmingham to break up his +meeting. When the evening arrived so great were the hostile crowds +around the town hall, so high their temper, that the chief constable of +the city begged Lloyd George not to risk himself on the platform. +Lloyd George would have none of his suggestion. He went to the hall, +and his appearance was a signal for a riot such as had been unknown for +a generation at a public gathering in Britain. In a frantic fight by +the Chamberlain supporters to reach the platform the sympathizers with +Lloyd George were trampled down. Furniture was broken up, windows were +smashed, several people were seriously injured, and one man was killed. +Lloyd George was smuggled out of the hall in a policeman's uniform. + +England rang with the story of the happenings on that night in +Birmingham. Lloyd George was called a coward and sneered at for +allowing himself to get away in disguise, and if poisonous words could +have checked a man's career he would have been finished from that time. +A few days after the riot an M. P. met Joseph Chamberlain in the lobby +of the House of Commons and said to him, "So your people didn't manage +to kill Lloyd George the other night?" "What is everybody's business +is nobody's business," said Chamberlain as he passed on. + +It is a tribute to Lloyd George's power among his own people in Wales +that when an election took place in the middle of the war he retained +his seat in Parliament. You get a touch of the kind of man in the +words he spoke to his supporters in the course of his speech after the +declaration of the poll. "While England and Scotland are drunk with +blood, the brain of Wales remains clear, and she advances with steady +step on the road to progress and liberty." + +The Conservatives remained in power to the end of 1905, and in the +beginning of 1906 there was a general election which returned to power +a strong Liberal majority augmented by some thirty Labor members. A +vigorous spirit was sweeping through the Liberal ranks. New men had +sprung to the front to take the place of those who had dropped out by +death, old age, or the feeling that modern thought was too advanced for +them. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, a pawky old Scotsman who became +the Liberal Prime Minister, did not confine the members of his Cabinet +to the respectable leaders of old time, but brought in new blood, among +his selections being Lloyd George. This promotion was unexpected by +the public. Lloyd George had made a big reputation in Parliament, but +it was always that of the free-lance. On vital questions of principle +he was as free from control by the Liberals as by the Conservatives. +He was known as an untamed guerrilla, and that was all. There were +many shrugs of the shoulder, many doubtful whispers, at the hazards +which Campbell-Bannerman was taking in putting such a person into the +Cabinet. True, he was but one of the lesser appointments--namely, that +of president of the Board of Trade--but was he capable of even that +responsibility? Had he any capacity at all as an administrator? These +were the doubts pretty freely expressed in political circles when the +appointments to the new Cabinet were announced. + +It is significant of the reserves in Lloyd George that from the time he +took his place among the line of Ministers on the Treasury bench he +began to show signs of qualities unsuspected. Gone was his +combativeness. He answered questions about his department with +urbanity, replied to criticism with courtesy and painstaking detail. +Out of the House he devoted himself assiduously to learning the +intricacies of his department. Very soon reforms began to be +manifested. The Board of Trade, an old and historic department, +largely bound up with red tape, became the most unconventional office +in Whitehall. Moreover, the activities of the Board of Trade began to +get an importance in Parliament that they had never hitherto possessed. +Novel measures were brought in by Lloyd George and, what was more +surprising, were successfully piloted into law by him. His grasp of +detail, his unfailing tact, his readiness to meet reasonable +objections, all contributed to the result. I do not mean that he was +always suave, because occasionally biting sentences would make +themselves felt as of old, but wherever courtesy and politeness were +forthcoming from opponents he returned them in full measure. +Responsibility was certainly having its effect on him. + +He passed the Patents and Designs Act, formulated to compel +manufacturers holding British patents to make their goods in Britain +instead of abroad, and he passed also the Merchant Shipping Act, for +the purpose of giving British sailors better food and healthier +conditions of life. While the Board of Trade was thus forging its way +in public estimation it suddenly became the most important Government +department in the country. The railway men all over the lines planned +a strike to get more pay, a strike which would have dislocated if it +had not stopped all the trains in Britain. It is the business of the +Board of Trade to handle labor disputes. Lloyd George was at once in +the vortex. To the surprise of some, he took no extreme view, but +considered it his duty as a Minister first of all to keep the railways +running for the benefit of the community as a whole, and then after +that to secure some arrangement, if it were possible, by which the lot +of the railway men could be bettered. He flung into the struggle for +compromise the whole of the ardor which for years past he had devoted +to combat, and after ceaseless struggles with both sides during some +days and nights lie was successful in fixing up a scheme under which +the railways were continued in operation, and the men got a good deal +of what they asked for. All sections praised him, and the new Lloyd +George was acclaimed as something of a revelation. + +His tenure as president of the Board of Trade was his first experience +as Cabinet Minister. He, nevertheless, established innovations the +thought of which would have given respectable and long-established +statesmen a shudder. He cared not a rap for convention. He was not in +the least afraid of his permanent officials, who so often control their +department and their political chief with it. A Cabinet Minister in +Britain is hedged with a certain divinity and is almost unapproachable +except under stated conditions. Lloyd George bewildered people with +his approachability, his unpretentiousness. During the strain of the +railway struggle he would exchange a cheery word with the waiting +newspaper reporters as he passed them on going in or out of his office, +an unheard-of thing for a Cabinet Minister to do. The second day was +cold and inclement when he stopped among them as he approached the +Board of Trade entrance. "There is no need for you gentlemen to wait +outside here in the cold. Come inside and I'll find you a room," he +said. He caused a comfortable apartment to be set aside for them +during their vigil, and each afternoon he caused tea and cigarettes to +be sent down to them to beguile the long period of waiting. Here is +another little story of his early days of office. A railway smash at +Shrewsbury resulted in the death of twenty people and the injury of a +great many more, and in accordance with the usual practice the Board of +Trade sent down immediately an inspector to investigate the cause of +the accident. But on this occasion not only did the inspector go down +to Shrewsbury, but his chief, the president of the Board of Trade, +also, quite a novel course for a high and mighty Cabinet Minister. I +was present as a journalist and remember seeing Lloyd George walking +along by the side of the dismantled lines, threading his way through +the wreckage, putting questions to the railway officials, and generally +seeking to probe out on his own account how the affair occurred. On +behalf of a score of special correspondents who had come down from +London, I stopped Lloyd George in the street as he was walking to his +hotel to ask him about the official inquiry. "Is it to be held in +private, as usual?" I said. "No," replied Lloyd George. "The inquiry +will be in public. Here are twenty people killed and the country has +the right to know why they were killed." That was the way he used to +break precedents. Next day we all went down to the Raven Hotel, the +appointed place, and the inspector proceeded with his work of examining +witnesses. Lloyd George sat by his side. I felt sorry for that +inspector--who usually was monarch of all he surveyed. He was a man of +dignified and leisurely manner. Lloyd George cut in and took the +examination of witnesses out of his mouth and, figuratively speaking, +turned them inside out in trying to get the facts. He did not consider +the position of the inspector one bit. But he made the inquiry a very +interesting one. + +Despite his new manner on the Treasury bench in the House of Commons +Lloyd George had lost none of the freshness and suppleness of mind +which had distinguished him as a free-lance, and as he proceeded to do +unexpected things it became apparent he was going to be as vital a +figure in office as he had been on the back benches. Traces of +appreciation showed themselves in public comment, though his ancient +enemies, the Conservatives, held their dislike in reserve, and had some +forebodings in their hearts about the future. They knew quite well by +now that this Welshman could not be read at a glance. + +Bits of the old Adam began to show up in Lloyd George's speeches as he +lent his aid on the platform in support of Liberal proposals. I +remember that at this time there was still a good deal of talk by the +Conservatives of tariff reform--that is to say, of the imposition of +import duties for protection and revenue purposes. The Liberals were +against the proposals, fought them strongly, and indeed by their +attitude had won a good deal of support in the election which returned +them to power. Lloyd George made some of his flaming speeches in +support of free trade against protection. Then came one night when the +Board of Trade Minister had to speak in the House of Commons as a +defender of the Government policy against a motion put forth by the +Opposition in favor of tariff reform. After speakers on both sides had +debated the topic for some hours it was Lloyd George's duty to wind up +the discussion for the Government. When he rose there was much +excitement on both sides and a good deal of shouting and +counter-shouting. Remarks were thrown across from the Opposition +benches indicating that Lloyd George's speeches about the evil of +tariff reform on the Continent had been exaggerated. "I have been +challenged," he said, "with regard to statements as to the food of the +poorer people in Germany, and I am going to give now, not my opinion, +but some hard facts." He held up a blue book. "This volume is the +last annual report of the Consul-General in Germany. The facts which I +shall quote are his facts, not mine. If you will not take my word, you +will at any rate be able to take his word." He turned to a marked +page. "Let us see what he says about a typical center, the city of +Chemnitz. Here are some interesting figures as to what the poorer +class eat in this tariff-reform paradise of Chemnitz." He proceeded to +read extracts. I cannot recall the extra figures, but Lloyd George's +phrases ran something like this: "This report states that in Chemnitz +last year there were sold in the shops two thousand tons of +horse-flesh. These are not my figures, mind, but those of the +Consul-General. I commend the figures to excited members opposite. +But horse-flesh is not the only thing the people through the pressure +of tariff reform are compelled to eat in Chemnitz. They even eat +dog-meat." (Cheers from the Liberals and derisive shouts from the +Conservatives.) "The Consul-General states that one thousand tons of +dog-meat were consumed in Chemnitz last year." (More shouting from +both sides.) "But there is even worse to come." Lloyd George's voice +took on a note of gravity, and the House hushed itself to listen. "Not +only horse-flesh, not only dog-meat, but five hundred tons of +donkey-flesh were sold in Chemnitz last year." He swung his finger +along the line of Opposition leaders and paused. "The fact has a +tragic significance for right honorable gentlemen who want to introduce +tariff reform into this country." + +Then his speech had to be suspended for a full minute. + +At this time the cause of tariff reform was going rapidly downhill. +Austen Chamberlain, the son of Joseph Chamberlain, strove hard to keep +it to the fore, and frequently at intervals in the House of Commons the +protectionist proposals were brought forward. Lloyd George had a +characteristic word to say about the situation one day. "I do not +blame Mr. Austen Chamberlain for sticking to his father. But the +considerations which have made him protectionist are not fiscal, but +filial. History ever repeats itself, and the boy still stands on the +burning deck." + +By rapid steps Lloyd George became the outstanding figure of the +Government in which he occupied a comparatively minor position. Soon +he was as prominent in Britain as, when a youth, he was prominent in +Wales. Hardly a week passed in which he was not by his daring speeches +or actions raising storms of anger among opponents or choruses of +approval among the advanced Liberals. Vital force radiated from him. +When Campbell-Bannerman died in 1908 and Asquith, his Chancellor of the +Exchequer, became Prime Minister, it was on Lloyd George that his +choice fell as the new Chancellor. The public, dazzled at Lloyd +George's swift rise, withheld their judgment as to the wisdom of Mr. +Asquith's experiment in this elevation of the Welshman to the post of +second statesman in the United Kingdom. As for Lloyd George himself, +he took up the position with calmness and a gleaming eye. At last he +had his hand on the helm. + + + + +V + +THE FIRST GREAT TASK + +The biggest day in Lloyd George's life until he was called upon by the +King to form a Government was Thursday, April 29, 1909. On that day he +presented to Parliament and the country his first Budget--the framework +of taxation and legislation which was to be the foundation of a new +social system in Britain--which incidentally was to break the power of +the House of Lords and to lead to such a storm among all classes that the +aid of the King himself had to be invoked in order to carry out the plan +of the Welsh statesman. + +A dramatic situation had arisen at Westminster. Up to 1906 when the +Liberals were returned by a large majority the Conservatives, with the +exception of a short break, had been in power for twenty years. Another +generation of the people had come to adult life since the early eighties +when the Liberals were last in real power, and a new set of Liberal +statesmen with advanced ideals had been put into office. The exultation +among the forces of progress was great. The hot hopes were to have a +speedy quenching. The laws of England are passed by the joint consent of +the King, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The House of +Commons is an electoral body, but the House of Lords has a hereditary +membership, descending from father to son. Of the six hundred members of +the House of Lords five hundred are Conservatives. The Conservative +minority in the Commons, faced with startling Liberal reforms, called to +their aid the five hundred stalwarts in the Lords, and the consequence +was that the sweeping measures introduced by the Liberals were promptly +thrown out by the Lords. Thus an intolerable situation presented itself +to the Liberal majority chosen by the nation to direct its Government. + +Lloyd George, on being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, at once set +himself the task of meeting the difficulty, and there were weapons to his +hand. He planned not only an elaborate scheme of reform, but also the +means of putting it into execution in face of the House of Lords. The +ostensible function of the Budget is to provide a schedule of taxation +for the coming year in order to meet the current needs of the country. +Lloyd George's plan was to put forward his own conception of "the needs +of the country" and then to raise the money on account of them. He +purposed to bring about a wholesale readjustment between rich and poor +and to use the readjustment as a basis for developments in the future. +That was his bold and carefully devised plan of action. It will be asked +at once why the Lords could not frustrate this intention as well as those +embodied in the other Liberal bills they had thrown out. This was the +reason: the Lords were prevented by the constitution from altering money +bills sent up to them by the Commons, though they might do what they +liked with other bills. The people provided the taxes, the Commons are +elected by the people, and the power of the purse possessed by the +Commons gives the people the command in affairs of state. As long ago as +the time of Charles II. this rule about the Commons and Lords with +respect to money supplies was emphatically laid down. Lloyd George's +scheme was to wrap up social changes in his Budget and to dare the Lords +to meddle with them, inasmuch as they were part and parcel of a money +bill. + +The country had no idea of this deep-rooted plan. Something sensational +was expected of Lloyd George, but his proposals, it was thought, would be +of a purely financial nature, including, possibly, heavy taxation of rich +people and relief of the indirect taxation of the poor. As a matter of +fact, Lloyd George, walking over from Downing Street to the House of +Commons on that Thursday afternoon, had three secrets in the leather +despatch-case he carried in his hand. One was the amount of money he was +going to raise, the second the sources from which he was going to obtain +it, and third the way in which the money was to be spent. Those of us +who saw him walking briskly across Palace Yard that afternoon in company +with Mr. Winston Churchill little thought that the small brown +despatch-case held plans which within three years were to alter vitally +the constitution of the United Kingdom as it had existed for eight +hundred years. + +The national financial position was known in the morning before Lloyd +George made his speech. The amount needed for the current year by the +country for the army, navy, civil services, and social relief was +164,152,000 pounds. The revenue to be expected on the existing basis of +taxation was 148,390,000 pounds. A deficit of nearly 16,000,000 pounds +had, therefore, to be provided for. In addition, in the framing of this +as of other Budgets, regard was necessary to the automatic increase of +certain expenditures in coming years, increases which must be met by the +expanding capacity of schemes of revenue. (Though the Budget is an +annual affair, a good many of its features are necessarily continuing.) +After all this has been taken into account there must be remembered that +Lloyd George was planning still further expenditure. He had therefore to +get piles of money from somewhere or other and to make sure of it in +increasing volume as years went on. + +I was present in the House of Commons to describe the Budget scene. The +Chamber was packed and was quivering with excitement when at four minutes +to three, during the preliminary business, Lloyd George, with a red +despatch-box in his hand, came into view from behind the Speaker's chair, +and passed with alert and nervous steps to the place on the Treasury +bench reserved for him between the Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, and Mr. +Churchill. I can see Lloyd George now as he sat bolt-upright with one +knee crossed over the other, waiting for the moment when the chairman +should call on him. His face was pale and his eyes were rather dull. He +looked a little overwrought. He was feeling the tension; so much was +obvious. I remember wondering if he had reached the limit of his +strength, whether he was really big enough in spirit for the ordeal that +lay before him. + +Within ten minutes the formal business of the day was over, and the +chairman, standing up on his dais, announced, "Mr. Chancellor of the +Exchequer." Lloyd George rose to the table. He seemed almost an +insignificant figure in the midst of the crowded assembly. Members were +filling all the seats, some squatting on the steps of the Speaker's +chair, others standing together in the space below the bar at the farther +end of the House. The galleries banked overhead were occupied by +distinguished visitors, foreign ambassadors, members of the House of +Lords, ladies of title, distinguished men of thought and action. It was +such an audience as is given to but few men in a lifetime. + +In low voice and conversational phrase Lloyd George began his speech. He +told of the money that had to be raised, but he did not stop at the +narrative of what may be called ordinary expenditure. He told how the +primary duty of a rich nation was to help those who had been exhausted, +to give a chance to the downtrodden. He related some of the things he +had in his mind--the insurance of workmen against illness and +unemployment, the payment of pensions for persons over a certain age. He +told of how unemployment might be largely eliminated by developments in +the countryside, through new methods of agriculture, through light +railways, through afforestation, through stock-breeding, through the +reclamation of land. Efforts in these directions would not only help a +great many of the population at the present time, but would provide +enormously increased opportunities for coming generations. He proposed +that part of the money of the year should be taken up with these projects. + +Very soon he swept into the explanation of how new money was to be +raised. It was necessary to set up a system which would, year by year, +produce an increasing supply of money. When Lloyd George came to the +point of his actual proposals you could have heard the slightest rustle +of an order paper, so keen were the silent Commons. He was going to +raise the income tax, he said, the existing impost on incomes of 160 +pounds a year and over. He was going to put a super tax on rich people, +those who had 5,000 pounds a year or more. He was going to make big +additions to the duty charged on great estates when they changed hands. + +Demand after demand he showered on the rich and comfortable. The +assembly, expecting surprises, had them in abundance. The Chancellor +drew sheaf after sheaf of notes from the red despatch-box on the table in +front of him and explained with an air of intensive reasonableness the +huge sums he proposed to draw from the property-owners in the country. +New inroads were to be made on the profits of land and liquor. +Coal-mines were to pay royalties. People were to be taxed when they +became rich without any effort on their own part, but by fortunate +accident in the increased value of special localities. There was to be a +complete valuation of every yard of land in the country as the basis for +developments to come. + +Although the money to be raised that year by these new proposals would +not much more than cover what was required by immediate necessities, the +taxation was such as to multiply in product as years went on. Finally +the motive behind the revolutionary Budget of Lloyd George came in the +concluding words of his speech. "It is essential that we should make +provision for the defense of our country. But, surely, it is equally +imperative that we should make it a country even better worth defending +for all and by all. And it is that this expenditure is for both these +purposes that alone can justify the Government. I am told that no +Chancellor of the Exchequer has ever been called upon to impose such +heavy taxes in a time of peace. This, Mr. Chairman, is a war Budget. It +is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and +squalidness. I cannot help hoping and believing that before this +generation has passed away we shall have advanced a great step toward +that good time when poverty and wretchedness, and the human degradation +which always follows in its camp, will be as remote from the people of +this country as the wolves which once infested its forests." + +It took a day or so for the full effect of the Budget to be understood. +And then enthusiasm rose in the breasts of Liberals and Labor men, while +the middle and upper classes poured forth outcries and protests. As the +proposals were discussed in detail, feeling arose on both sides, and +Lloyd George was variously described as a genius who was laying the +foundation of a new Britain and a predatory politician out to catch +votes. Throughout the length and breadth of the United Kingdom his name +was on the lips of all, either in execration or in praise. + +The greatest Parliamentary fight of a generation began to take form in +the House of Commons. The Conservatives, led by Mr. Balfour, put up an +obstructive fight to every line and almost every word of the finance bill +which was founded on the Budget. Departmental duties all day, the onward +fight with his finance measure throughout the night and often the early +hours of the morning, became the routine of Lloyd George's life. I have +seen him at the table at the House of Commons at seven o'clock in the +morning, with ashen face and burning eyes, after a week of all-night +sittings, persuading, explaining, and arguing with determined opponents +of his measure. Often enough in these fatiguing morning hours there +would be sitting up behind the grille in the ladies' gallery an anxious, +but proud, woman watching the Welsh statesman at the table. It was Mrs. +George, the pretty Maggie Owen of years before whom the young Welsh +solicitor had taken from her father's farm. + +In justice I ought to summarize in a few sentences written at the time +the attitude of the opponents of the Budget. "Why put forward these +extraordinary changes? Here was an unequaled nation, the richest and +greatest in existence, which by its character and energy had built up an +empire reaching across the globe, with Parliamentary institutions which +were the admiration of every state. The millions of our population were +welded in a common sentiment, unsurpassed since history began, making +unshakable the foundations of our nationality. We had fought our way to +modern conditions very slowly, and now, class for class, we were perhaps +the most contented and prosperous people on the face of the earth. +Admitted that we had vast crowds of silently enduring poor. (The poor we +have always with us, as has every great nation.) But the way to +ameliorate the evils among them was not to disturb the comfort, +convenience, or property of the rich, but to increase the prosperity of +rich and poor alike by putting a tax on foreigners' goods coming into +this country, thus providing revenue and increasing home manufactures at +one stroke. That was the course to pursue, not to disturb the elaborate +and happy system, the pride of the world, by sudden incursions into the +liberty of the individual and by depredations on the privileged in order +to benefit the unhappy. Property, whether obtained without effort or +built up by the hardest of labor, had its inalienable rights, and +violently to outrage those rights was not only unjust to the persons +chiefly concerned, but dangerous to the state at large." + +The campaign which was set in motion against Lloyd George has not been +equaled in violence since the old free-speaking days of a century ago. +He was called a vulgar Welsh attorney. He was accused of having every +kind of attribute which was contemptible and hateful. One of the things +urged against him was that he was no gentleman and could not understand +the feeling of gentlefolk, owing to his unfortunate upbringing. His +opponents thus attacking him went into paroxysms of rage over a speech he +made at Limehouse in the East End of London, where he defended his +Budget. The Limehouse speech has become famous as an example of Lloyd +George's oratory. I give a few extracts to enable an idea to be formed +about it. + +"The Budget is introduced, not merely for the purpose of raising barren +taxes, but taxes that are fertile taxes, taxes that will bring forth +fruit--the security of the country which is paramount in the minds of +all, provision for the aged and deserving poor. It was time it was done. +It is rather a shame for a rich country like ours, probably the richest +country in the world, if not the richest the world has ever seen, that it +should allow those who have toiled all their days to end in penury and +possibly starvation. It is rather hard that an old workman should have +to find his way to the gates of the tomb, bleeding and footsore through +the brambles and thorns of poverty. We cut a new path through, an easier +one, a pleasanter one, through fields of waving corn. We are raising +money to pay for the new road, aye, and to widen it, so that two hundred +thousand paupers shall be able to join in the march. There are many in +the country blessed by Providence with great wealth, and if there are +among them men who grudge out of their riches a fair contribution toward +the less fortunate of their fellow-countrymen, they are shabby rich men. + +"We propose to do more by the means of the Budget. We are raising money +to provide against the evils and sufferings that follow from +unemployment. We are raising money for the purpose of assisting our +great friendly societies to provide for the sick, the widows, and the +orphans. We are providing money to enable us to develop the resources of +our own land. I do not believe any fair-minded man would challenge the +justice and the fairness of the objects which we have in view of raising +this money. But there are some who say that the taxes themselves are +unjust, unfair, unequal, oppressive, notably so the land taxes. They are +engaged, not merely in the House of Commons, but outside the House of +Commons, in assailing these taxes with a concentrated and sustained +ferocity which will not even allow a comma to escape with its life. + +"We claim that the tax we impose on land is fair, just, and moderate. +They go on threatening that if we proceed they will cut down their +benefactions and discharge labor. What kind of labor? What is the labor +they are going to choose for dismissal? Are they going to threaten to +devastate rural England while feeding themselves and dressing themselves? +Are they going to reduce their gamekeepers? That would be sad. The +agricultural laborer and the farmer might then have some part of the game +which they fatten with their labor. But what would happen to you in the +season? No weekend shooting with the Duke of Norfolk for any of us. But +that is not the kind of labor they are going to cut down. They are going +to cut down productive labor--builders and gardeners--and they are going +to ruin their property so that it shall not be taxed. All I can say is +this: the ownership of land is not merely an enjoyment, it is +stewardship. It has been reckoned as such in the past, and if they cease +to discharge their functions, which include the security and defense of +the country and the looking after the broken in their villages and +neighborhood, those functions which are part of the traditional duties +attaching to the ownership of land and which have given to it its title, +if they cease to discharge those functions, the time will come to +reconsider the conditions under which land is held in this country. No +country, however rich, can permanently afford to have quartered upon its +revenue a class which declines to do the duty which it is called upon to +perform. And, therefore, it is one of the prime duties of statesmanship +to investigate those conditions. + +"We are placing the burdens on the broad shoulders. Why should I put +burdens on the people? I am one of the children of the people. I was +brought up among them. I know their trials, and God forbid that I should +add one grain of trouble to the anxiety which they bear with such +patience and fortitude. When the Prime Minister did me the honor of +inviting me to take charge of the national Exchequer at a time of great +difficulty I made up my mind in framing the Budget which was in front of +me that at any rate no cupboard should be barer, no lot should be harder +to bear. By that test I challenge them to judge the Budget." + +The passion among the middle classes and the upper classes rose to such a +pitch against Lloyd George's proposals as to cause more than one serious +and religiously minded person to write and express wonder that Heaven did +not strike dead such a wicked man before he could accomplish his fell +purpose in the ruin of the country. + +There is a story told about a man who jumped from the pier at Brighton +into the sea to rescue a drowning person. In describing his experience +the rescuer said: "It was easy enough. Only a few strokes were necessary +to reach him. I got hold of him by the collar just as he was going down. +Having turned him over on his back to see that it wasn't Lloyd George, I +then brought him to the pier." + +The House of Lords felt they had the country behind them, and they +proceeded to the unprecedented and unconstitutional course of killing the +Budget. This was exactly what Mr. Asquith and his first lieutenant had +been waiting for. Lloyd George saw the fruits of his labor destroyed in +a day, but he watched the process, not with despair, but with grim +satisfaction. + +The Lords had broken their last Liberal bill, for Lloyd George had +determined to break the Lords. + + + + +VI + +HOW LLOYD GEORGE BROKE THE HOUSE OF LORDS + +A few days later, with Lloyd George sitting by his side, Mr. Asquith, +the Prime Minister, made the following announcement in Parliament: "The +House of Commons would, in the judgment of his Majesty's Government, be +unworthy of its past and of the traditions of which it is the custodian +and trustee if it allowed another day to pass without making it clear +that it does not mean to brook the greatest indignity and the most +arrogant usurpation to which for more than two centuries it has been +asked to submit. We have advised the Crown to dissolve Parliament at +the earliest possible moment." + +The preparations for the general election included a campaign of +vilification against Lloyd George which shook even some of the +Conservatives. But the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the other hand, +was not disturbed, and he did not hesitate to do a little vilification +on his own account. "What a low creature!" was the instant retort to +any incursions of this kind. + +One of the secrets of Lloyd George's career was that he always made his +opponents too angry to appraise him correctly. They simply couldn't do +it. A little cold-blooded study of him and his past history would have +served them well. Because Lloyd George had a peculiarly bitter tongue +and a peculiarly stimulating one he was abused as a fluent demagogue +with nothing but unscrupulous and violent words to give him prominence. +This was not a mere pretense on the part of the upper classes. They +seriously believed it. As a result Lloyd George had a tremendous pull +over the whole lot of them. One secret of his power was that his real +strength lay not in words, but in his capacity for action. Because he +talked about things with recklessness and force it was assumed that he +could not do things. The hard fact was that he was more effective in +doing things and in getting them done than in talking about them. He +secured a wonderful advantage from all this. While hard names were +being showered on him, and even while he was replying to them, he was +at work quietly. I have often thought that as soon as his opponents +found him out they felt that this was not fair, that he ought to have +played the game and to have shown himself as exactly the kind of man +they had portrayed him to be. Yet, at the time, his enemies would +probably have been contemptuous of the suggestion that this ranting +person could possibly be a man who was specially gifted in carrying +plots and plans and big state projects into execution. They had to +learn to their cost that he was both resolute and stealthy. + +Lloyd George had as his chief Mr. Asquith, a man of crystal intellect, +who had won high distinction, first at his university, than at the bar, +where he was a famous advocate, and latterly in the House of Commons, +where his mastery of Parliamentary arts was only equaled by that of the +rival leader, Mr. Balfour. His speeches were powerful, but they +appealed to the head rather than to the emotions. Unlike Lloyd George, +he was not by way of being a prophet. He could not by sheer intensity +sway the House of Commons. Mr. Asquith, moreover, was quite incapable +of stirring a public audience on the platform outside the House, and he +lacked that terrific energy which distinguished his principal +colleague. But he was, nevertheless, a first-rate partner. His +steady, cold brain would carry into effect with precision an intricate, +delicate, and bold plan of operations. He had hardihood. Every wile +in public life was known to him. He had strong will-power. And in +sheer brain of what may be called the purely intellectual type he was +miles ahead, not only of Lloyd George, but of all the other politicians +of the day. I should say here that he undoubtedly felt deeply the slur +cast upon the House of Commons by the Lords. And there is one more +trait that should be mentioned, his unshakable loyalty to those who +served under him, and to his brilliant Chancellor of the Exchequer not +less than to any of the others. + +It implies, however, no disrespect to Mr. Asquith to say that he had +become the instrument of Lloyd George. It was the latter's subtle +brain that evolved the possible consequences which might ensue after +his first stroke in the Budget of April, 1909. It was his bold spirit +that urged the desperate course which was presently pursued. He +measured the Lords and decided that if they could not be frightened +into defeat they could be hustled into a wild attempt which would be +equally disastrous to them. + +Joyfully he entered the fray as soon as the Lords threw out the Budget. +In a public speech made immediately after the Lords' action he said: "I +come here to-day not to preach a funeral oration. I am here neither to +bury nor to praise the Budget. If it is buried it is in the sure and +certain hope of a glorious resurrection. As to its merits, no one +appreciates them more sincerely than I do, but its slaughter has raised +greater, graver, and more fruitful issues. We have got to arrest the +criminal. We have to see he perpetrates no further crime. A new +chapter is now being written for the sinister assembly which is more +responsible than any other power for wrecking popular hopes, but which, +in my judgment, has perpetrated its last act of destructive fury. They +have slain the Budget. In doing so they have killed the bill which, if +you will permit me to say so, had in it more promises of better things +for the people of this country than most things which have been +submitted to the House of Commons. It made provision against the +inevitable evils which befall such large masses of our poor population, +through old age, infirmity, sickness, and unemployment. The schemes of +which the Budget was the small foundation would, in my judgment, if +they had been allowed to fructify, have eliminated at least hunger from +the terrors that haunt the workman's cottage. Yet here you have an +order of men blessed with every fortune which Providence can bestow on +them grudging a small pittance out of their super-abundance in order to +protect those who have built up their wealth against the haunting +terror of misery and despair. They have thrown it out, and in doing so +they have initiated one of the greatest, gravest, and most promising +struggles of the time. Liberty owes as much to the foolhardiness of +its foes as it does to the sapience and wisdom of its friends. At last +the case between the peers and the people has been set down for trial +in the great assize of the people, and the verdict will be given soon." + +The country was quickly in the midst of the election. It cannot be +said that Lloyd George dealt lightly with the House of Lords. Here is +a typical reference: "Who are the guardians of this mighty British +people? I shall have to make exceptions, but they are men who have +neither the training, the qualifications, nor the experience which +would fit them for such a gigantic task. The majority of them are +simply men whose sole qualification is that they are the first-born of +persons who had just as little qualifications as themselves. To invite +this imperial race, this, the greatest commercial nation in the world, +the nation that has taught the world in the principles of +self-government and liberty--to invite this nation itself to sign a +decree that declares itself unfit to govern itself without the +guardianship of such people, that is an insult which I hope will be +thrown back with ignominy." + +Not only the upper classes, but a great many of the lower classes +stormed and raged at these and similar words. The _Daily Mail_ went so +far as to give a column of titbits from Lloyd George's speeches in +order to show what a really vulgar and detestable person he was, and +how unfit to occupy any leading position in the state. + +The election results as they began to come in indicated that while the +Liberals were losing a number of seats which in years gone by had been +Conservative strongholds, they were, nevertheless, going to retain the +confidence of the country. In the result Mr. Asquith found himself +once again in command of the House of Commons with a majority of one +hundred and twenty-four. + +The cards were placed in the hands of the Liberals now, but they had to +be very carefully played. The House of Lords swallowed its humiliation +as best it could and passed the famous Budget on April 28, 1910, +exactly one year after its introduction into the House of Commons. +They did not make any fuss about it, because, as I shall show, they had +other things to think of. I remember the day on which the bill became +law in the House of Lords. There were very few peers present. Several +of the members of the House of Commons walked across from the Commons +to witness the culmination of their effort. Among them was Lloyd +George. He came in under the gallery, sprucely dressed in a morning +coat, his long hair brushed back from his forehead and above his ears +with a neatness which was not observable in his moments of excitement. +To-day he had no work to do: one job was finished and he was only on +the threshold of another. As he stood at the bar he looked over the +members of the House of Lords with a grave and benignant expression +which reminded one of a fond father regarding erring children. I +thought of the studious expression which usually characterized the face +of that daredevil boy down at Llanystumdwy all those years ago. I am +quite sure that the peers who observed him surveying them did not think +he was benignant. If I am any judge of feelings, they looked upon him, +as he stood there at the bar, as a particularly malignant type of +viper. With a genial smile Lloyd George exchanged a chatty word or two +with an M. P. at his side. No one would have guessed that there was +bitterness in his soul at this assembly or that with grim purpose he +was even now marking out the destruction of their powers. + +It is the fashion in the House of Lords to give the King's consent to +legislation by proxy. The consent, moreover, is given now, as for many +hundreds of years past, not in the English language, but in the +language of the old Norman-French conqueror of nearly a thousand years +ago. A bewigged clerk read out in resonant tones the title of the bill +and from another official there came the answer of the King, "Le Roy le +veult" ("The King wills it"). The Budget of 1909 had become part of +the law of the United Kingdom. Lloyd George, still chatting cheerfully +with a fellow-member of the House of Commons, walked back to the Lower +Chamber. + +If any of the Lords thought that the threats used against them in the +course of the election meant nothing and were only a kind of bluster to +get the Budget passed, they were grievously mistaken. It must have +been hard for them to realize that Lloyd George meant all the +presumptuous things he said. He was never more in earnest. A +cut-and-dried plan had been arranged between him and Mr. Asquith with +regard to the Lords. The plan was no less than this--to take away from +the peers their constitutional rights to do more than to hold up for +three successive sessions any legislation passed by the House of +Commons. They were not to have the power of killing bills, though they +might retard them a little. And so far as money bills were concerned +they were not to be allowed to delay them at all. The Commons were to +be given power to pass any money bill over the head of the Lords if the +latter did not agree to it immediately it was sent up to them. In +these cases the King and Commons between them were to be the lawmaking +power, and as the King's assent is always automatically given to the +proposals of Ministers in power the net result would be the complete +supremacy of the Commons in Government. + +But how were these changes to be made effective? They could, of +course, only be brought into force by legal enactment, and it was +impossible to expect the Lords to sign their own death warrant. It was +settled between Lloyd George and Mr. Asquith to take the House of Lords +by the throat. Lloyd George was prepared for extreme measures, and Mr. +Asquith, a student of English history, found out a way by means of +ancient precedent. Twice before in the story of the British Parliament +there had been similar episodes. In the reign of Queen Anne and in the +reign of William IV. the Prime Minister of the day, encountering +opposition from the House of Lords, had gone to the reigning sovereign +and secured the promise of the creation of enough new peers to turn the +minority in the House of Lords into a preponderance of votes. This was +the plan now agreed upon, only the audacity of it was far greater than +on previous occasions, because Queen Anne's new peers numbered but +twelve and the number of new peers proposed to be created in 1832 to +pass the Reform bill under William IV. was limited to eighty. Mr. +Asquith and Lloyd George faced the fact that on this occasion it would +be necessary to create something like five hundred new peers. + +I pass over some of the intervening stages--the howls that came from +the Lords, who saw their prestige departing with this wholesale +dilution of their order; the choking attempts which the peer leaders +made to be civil of tongue and to arrange a compromise. Merciless was +the determination of Lloyd George. Another general election on the +specific issue of the power of the Lords again resulted in the return +of the Liberals to office. + +The Government proposals for the restriction of the future functions of +the Lords were embodied in a measure called the Parliament bill, and it +was for the Lords to pass this measure or else to suffer the immediate +creation of the army of new peers who had been nominated by Mr. Asquith +and who would immediately vote down the existing Conservative majority +in the gilded chamber. + +The climax was reached on August 9, 1911, when the bill, having passed +through the Commons, was brought up to the House of Lords for their +decision. The peers by this time were torn between two impulses. One, +the most natural, was to defy Mr. Asquith and Lloyd George and all +their wicked companions, and let them create what peers they liked, and +the other to swallow the medicine, pass the Parliament bill, and thus, +while limiting their own powers for the future, preserve their ancient +caste and dignity. + +It was touch and go throughout an excited discussion. Lord Morley, +plain John Morley of the years gone by, made a speech of three +sentences in which he said he was authorized to state that the King +would assent to the creation of the extra peers if the bill were not +passed. Wild hopes that the King would stand by the Lords were thus +extinguished. There were dramatic scenes never to be forgotten by +those who witnessed them, and then finally the bill was accepted by a +majority of seventeen votes. The power of the House of Lords, strong +for centuries, had been broken. The man who had broken it was Lloyd +George. + + + + +VII + +AT HOME AND IN DOWNING STREET + +In the midst of all the stormy times of the fight with the House of +Lords and afterward up to the present moment Lloyd George's personal +life in its simplicity and happiness has been a standing contrast to +the turmoil and passion of his public energy. Meet Lloyd George among +his family, and it is hard to realize that such a homely, genial person +could be the man who tackled so rancorously the House of Lords. I went +to 11 Downing Street one day after the Budget fight was over, and when, +as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George was preparing further +legislative changes. Eleven Downing Street, it should be explained, is +the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and joins +number 10, where the Prime Minister lives. It is a dingy, ugly-looking +building, attractive only by reason of its associations. In the year +that America declared her independence number 10 Downing Street was the +residence of Lord North, and it may then, as now, have had connecting +doors which made the two houses into practically one official home. + +Lloyd George discussed public affairs in a corner of the old library +lined with books which Gladstone used to consult half a century ago and +his predecessors before him. A glance round the rows of volumes, +nearly all of them ponderous and many of them venerable, caused me to +ask Lloyd George who was his favorite author. He gave me no +philosopher, not even a poet, in reply. "I like romance," he said, +"historical romance. I am fond of Dumas and of modern writers like +Stanley Weyman." Possibly Lloyd George has never looked into those +old, handsome, leather-covered volumes at his official residence. His +secretaries may have pondered over them in securing material for their +chief, but Lloyd George has been too busy doing things to devote much +time to ancient philosophical reflections or to learned economic +theories. It is easy to understand how his temperament found +satisfaction and relaxation at the same time in the cut-and-thrust work +of Dumas and Weyman. I ought, perhaps, to add that he explained with a +smile how politics did not leave him much time for serious reading just +then. They have certainly left him still less since that time. + +We were in the thick of talk about the busy political era when a little +girl of twelve, with a ribbon of blue round her tumbling hair, came +running into the room, not knowing that a visitor was present. She +would have run out again, upon seeing me, if her father had not stopped +her and caught her into his arms. For the rest of the interview she +sat on his knee, listening with big, live eyes to the conversation. +Once she cuddled closer to her father and laughed merrily as he +confessed to me that his next bill before Parliament was one to +prohibit the holidays of little girls at school from lasting more than +six weeks. Megan was the darling of her father's heart. Two or three +mornings of the week you could have seen them hand in hand walking from +11 Downing Street across St. James's Park to watch the ducks feeding in +the lake. With sparkling blue eyes, a sensitive mouth, and vivacious +manner, little Megan had some of her father's characteristics. She was +a daughter any father might be proud of. I guarantee Lloyd George was +prouder of her--and still is--than of his epoch-making Budget or his +historic victory over the House of Lords. Just now in Parliamentary +session, or indeed out of it, Lloyd George has not very much time for +walks in the parks--but I am sure Megan gets her share of attention in +spite of the European war. + +The war has, of course, intensified Lloyd George's life and somewhat +altered its channels, but its main directions are preserved. At all +hours of day and night he must be prepared for service. He could not, +however, carry on his work without proper rest and sleep, and the +following is the kind of routine to which he has accustomed himself. +Awakening at seven in the morning, he has a quick glance through the +principal newspapers, not only of London, but those from the provinces +and from abroad as well. Occasionally while he is dressing, and always +before he leaves his room, he looks through documents and papers which +he has brought up to his bedside on the previous night. (They are +arranged in their proper order on a table by the side of his bed so +that in any waking fit at night he can put his hand on them readily.) + +Visitors begin to arrive early, because Lloyd George has re-established +the practice of Victorian statesmen in having guests to breakfast with +him and his family. By this means he not only saves time from many +social functions, but gets through a lot of business as well, for his +breakfast guests include politicians, editors, leading officials, +prominent travelers from overseas, indeed practically the whole range +of persons who for state or private reasons he desires to meet. + +Soon after ten o'clock he is busy with his secretaries. These have +already been at work on the morning letters, which in the days when he +was Chancellor of the Exchequer numbered a thousand a day and are now +probably three or four times as many. Work of a widely different kind +keeps Lloyd George on the go till lunch-time--departmental conferences, +visits from or to Cabinet Ministers, the supervision of answers to +questions to be put to him in the House of Commons that afternoon, the +reception of deputations from various interests affected by current +proposals or future proposals that he is making. At least once a week, +and sometimes more frequently, there is a Cabinet meeting in the +morning that probably lasts well into the afternoon. On days when +there is no Cabinet meeting there will be other visitors at lunch-time, +and these are generally of an official character. Big plans affecting +the social future of England have undoubtedly been worked out over +Lloyd George's lunch-table. He is a vivid talker himself, but he is +also a good listener, and there is not any one more ready to give an +ear to tactful and helpful advice--only those who offer it must have +something to say. + +At a quarter to three in the afternoon the House of Commons assembles, +and from that time onward to eleven o'clock at night Lloyd George is to +be found either on the Treasury bench or in his private room behind the +Speaker's chair. Endless are the occupations for a busy Minister in +Parliament, and whether he is answering questions, expounding policy, +fighting through details of proposals, or merely listening to the +speeches of opponents, he is pretty well on the stretch the whole time. +Even in his own room there is business to be done, deputations to be +received, "whips" to be consulted, friendly or hostile talks to be gone +through with members, and frequently also the reception of individual +visitors. All this takes no account of social usages, the little +hospitalities which must not be forgotten--the accompanying of groups +of constituents to the public galleries, the entertainment of other +groups to tea on the Terrace overlooking the river. Sometimes an hour +may be seized for the House of Lords at the other end of the corridor +when they are dealing with Commons legislation. + +I asked Lloyd George how he managed to sleep after such days as these, +and he said: "I never have any difficulty about that. Downing Street +is only about four minutes' walk from the House of Commons. If the +House adjourns at eleven I am usually away by twenty minutes past, and +at a quarter to twelve I am in bed--probably asleep. This power for +quick sleep has always been a great help to me." + +The Lloyd George family at home consisted of Mr. and Mrs. George, two +sons, and two daughters. Of the two boys, both in the twenties, one +was at Cambridge University and the other in a responsible position as +a civil engineer. Both are now soldiers, fighting in France. There +are two girls, Megan and her sister, Olwen, a charming girl who has +lately become engaged to a medical officer in the army. There is +another person who frequently completes the family circle at 11 Downing +Street. It is Richard Lloyd, the old shoemaker who forty years ago +risked his little all to educate his orphan nephew. It was one of the +pleasurable anticipations of Lloyd George, when he was appointed +Chancellor of the Exchequer with the privileges of this historic +residence, that Richard Lloyd would be able to come and stay there. +"My dear old uncle," he said, "will be so proud to come and stay at the +house in which Gladstone, his great hero, at one time lived." + +Lloyd George is wiry, but no man, however strong, could continue +indefinitely to put himself under such a strain as I have indicated +without occasional complete rest. When he is not under too heavy a +time he will go for a weekend's golf to Walton Heath, some twenty miles +from London, in Surrey, or spend a couple of days at Brighton on the +south coast. But when he is really exhausted there is only one place +for him, and that is his beautiful home near Criccieth, about a mile +from Llanystumdwy, where he spent his boyhood. On the hills rising +from behind Criccieth and forming the foot of the Snowdon range he has +built a graceful residence, whence he can look down over the wooded +slopes to Criccieth and thence to Carnarvon Bay. On the other side the +house faces the snow-capped mountains. From every window there is a +beautiful scene. A lane leading from the gates, between towering +hedges, winds through fields and woods down to Llanystumdwy. + +With the charm of mountains, countryside, and sea there goes an +invigorating atmosphere. "When I am exhausted," said Lloyd George to +me once, "I come down here from London and I sleep long nights. In the +daytime I sit out here on the veranda in a basket-chair with a rug +around me, facing the sea, and here I rest and sometimes sleep. This +beautiful Welsh air wraps me all round with its healing touch, and I +let it do its work, and I am soon well again." During these +recuperative days Lloyd George does no business, writes no letters, +receives no visitors, sees no one but members of his own family. After +about three days of this treatment he is recovering himself. + +One day in a lane near Criccieth I met him in tweed suit and soft gray +hat, with field-glasses strapped around him, and a stout walking-stick +in his hand. He had been at Criccieth a fortnight, and thoughts of +work were again seizing hold of him. He had in prospect a big scheme +of land legislation that was to continue and develop the movement begun +in the Budget. (A little later the war cut the project short.) "I am +going for a walk up to the mountains," he said. "I can do my thinking +best when I am out walking alone." Afterward I wondered what new +revolution to startle the landed aristocracy of Britain he devised on +that summer day by himself among the mountains. Curiously enough, +Lloyd George does not like exercise for his own sake, but he enjoys it +when he has a mental task in hand; he also enjoys it during a game of +golf. I once heard him say that without golf he would never have +thought of taking a four-mile walk for recreation. It is worthy of +mention in connection with this that he has been described at second +hand on his own confession as being a very lazy man, and that he has +sometimes absolutely to force himself to a settled task--and, strange +as it may appear, there is nothing in this inconsistent with the public +estimation of him as a person of uncontrollable energy. Let his heart +be given to an object, and there is no effort he will spare, no degree +of fatigue to which he will not drive himself. + +Intensely fond of an open-air life, Lloyd George's days at Criccieth +are always a joy to him. You will come across him unexpectedly on the +bank of the river Dwyfor with a fishing-rod in his hand, trying for +trout. You will see him sometimes in the early morning at work in his +garden in his endeavor to demonstrate that fruit trees will grow as +well in Welsh soil as in the warm, red earth of Devonshire. Sometimes +he and his wife, with perhaps one of his sons, will put a couple of +tents into an automobile, start off up among the mountains, and camp +out in some lonely and romantic spot for days at a time, living the +primitive life entirely by themselves. + +Strange it is to observe the attitude of the people of the countryside +where he was brought up and where he built his early fame. There are a +scattered few of the middle classes who in this remote country spot +cannot understand the heights he has reached in public estimation. It +is really a weird sensation to come from the outer world and talk to +these people. No, no, he may to some extent have secured notoriety in +circles even as far off as London, but really there is nothing in the +man. Why, he was brought up here in the village! But these quaintly +prejudiced folk are, after all, but a remnant, and the great mass of +people all around in the farms and cottages prize his fame highly. The +pride with which a villager refers to the fact that he went to school +with Mr. Lloyd George must be one of the highest pleasures experienced +by the Welsh statesman. It is an event to go to a meeting in the +institute at Llanystumdwy and hear him address a crowded meeting of his +compatriots in their native tongue and with all the old affectionate +familiarity of a long-standing friend and neighbor. The rolling music +of the ancient language is echoed back from the enthusiastic Celts in a +kind of rhythmic ecstasy which thrills even the ignorant and alien +Sassenach visitor. Lloyd George is still one of themselves. It is +indeed hard for them to realize his position in the outside world, +though they are so proud of it. To Criccieth and Llanystumdwy he is +not so much the prominent statesman of the United Kingdom as just Lloyd +George, the friend who grew up with them. He will never be anything +else to them. It is all quite delightful and, one may add, quite +bewildering to his enemies, who cannot understand that such unconcealed +and regardless simplicity is an integral part of the nature of him whom +they regard as a malignant. I have seen Lloyd George in a hundred +capacities, electrifying a multitude, in the thick of battle with the +cleverest minds of Parliament, attacking to their faces with relentless +ferocity men of the noblest descent in Britain, and yet I know of +nothing in his life which approaches in interest his relations with his +old village friends of long ago. They like him for himself and not for +what he has become, though they are so proud of him. One elderly lady, +a friend of the Lloyd George family, when paying a visit to London +heard that Lloyd George was to address a London meeting, and she +thought she would like to go and hear him. She presented herself at +the hall and was nearly swept off her feet by the surging crowd making +its way in. After reaching one of the corridors with difficulty, she +got an attendant to take her name in to Mrs. Lloyd George. The latter, +who was on the platform, hurried out to her old friend and took her to +a seat in the front of the hall. The building was packed in every +part. Lloyd George got one of his usual receptions and made one of his +usual speeches. The old lady was staggered. She went back to Wales +full of the wonderful experience--and it has to be remembered that she +had known Lloyd George all her life. "I have heard that he has become +a well-known man," she said, "but I never understood what an important +man he was till I went to that meeting." + +There is another reflection about his home life which must occur to any +visitor to the locality. Big houses and lovely grounds lay off the +main road in the neighborhood, undoubtedly the homes of country +gentlefolk. And one may venture to surmise their attitude toward this +public firebrand who lives in their vicinity and used to be a village +boy under the care of his uncle, the shoemaker. Is he on their +visiting-list? I rather suspect not. The world must be turning +topsy-turvy for them when they allow themselves to reflect, as they +must at times, that this upstart has the entry to royal palaces and is +one of the principal advisers of the King of England. I have an idea +that something more potent than gall and wormwood is required to +express their feelings. All this before the war. What can possibly be +the attitude of mind of the local squires and lordlings now that this +man has become an international statesman, probably the most forcible +personality among that group of men who sit in conference to direct the +activities and formulate the destinies of great European nations. +Possibly I do them an injustice, and their habits of mind have changed +of late. + +During the big Budget fight Lloyd George, by virtue of his official +position, had to attend occasional society functions. There was a +duchess who could not avoid shaking hands with this person, who to her +and her class was a monstrosity. After he had gone she spoke of the +encounter to a friend with surprise in her voice. "I have just met +Lloyd George," she said. "Do you know that he is really quite a nice +man?" I have the impression that neither squires nor duchesses trouble +Lloyd George very much, and that when this war is over and victory for +his country secured he will go down to Criccieth and enjoy himself +thoroughly in a golf-match with the local schoolmaster or one of the +farmers of the district. + + + + +VIII + +A CHAMPION OF WAR + +The psychology of a community is as mysterious and subtle as that of an +individual, and Lloyd George, despite all his so-called extravagance, +all his depredations, and all his wounding words, was by way of being +an acknowledged power in the country by the time the war with Germany +burst out of the sky. The mysterious strength of the man worked on +people against their will. Besides, there were tangible things which +had to be faced. He had settled the great railway strike, he had +passed several sweeping Acts of Parliament, he had brought into effect +the iniquitous Budget, he had dismantled the British constitution by +taking away the powers of the House of Lords. You may sneer at such a +man, you may hate him, but you cannot ignore him. Sincere and +religiously minded ladies used to write to the papers, wondering in all +sincerity why Heaven permitted such a man to continue to live. A peer +of the realm told his tenants that he would roast an ox whole for them +in celebration of the day that Lloyd George went out of office, and, on +top of this, the announcement that Lloyd George was going to speak drew +together the unprecedented gathering of sixteen thousand people to hear +him on a special day in the Midlands. You can sort out these varied +facts to suit yourself, but taken altogether they convey a lesson. Let +me add another point. Lloyd George, growing in influence, for years +had been the special mark of attack for the _Daily Mail_, Lord +Northcliffe's popular morning paper. When, after his House of Lords +fight had been brought to a finish, Lloyd George set himself to a new +colossal piece of legislation--namely, national health insurance--there +was a concentrated attack by the _Daily Mail_ to break the "poll tax" +and Lloyd George with it. There had been a stream of violent criticism +from the Northcliffe papers during the Budget days and the House of +Lords battle, but the abuse was distributed pretty evenly upon the +Government, though Lloyd George and Mr. Asquith got the major share. +On this occasion all the guns were brought to bear on Lloyd George. +The insurance tax was unpopular, and nothing that ridicule, covert +insult, or open denunciation could achieve was left undone by the +Northcliffe papers to smash Lloyd George and his policy. There was +plenty of scope for attack. The Insurance Act was undoubtedly +hurriedly conceived, and its complexities incompletely dovetailed. +Whatever the merit of the conception, there had to be a score of +rectifications when the measure came into operation. Some of Lloyd +George's best friends complained of the injustices and irregularities +of the Act. The _Daily Mail_ was in the van of attack. To me it is +surprising his assailants did not get Lloyd George down over this +matter. They did not get him down. He carried the insurance bill, he +forced it into operation, and he had left another milestone in his +career behind him some time before the catastrophe of the European war +appeared. + +The country took a deep breath when the first shock of hostilities with +Germany occurred, and then turned a passing attention to the British +Cabinet, from which two or three members, including Lord Morley and Mr. +John Burns, had resigned, presumably on account of their disapproval of +the Government's action in going to war. Remarks came thick and fast +as to the attitude of Ministers, and for a time it was suggested that +Lloyd George was one of those who were on the verge of resignation. +There was nothing impossible in the suggestion. A hater of wars, a +fighter against wars all his life, he seemed just the kind of man to go +adrift, and a good deal of movement was in readiness for the event. +Special writers on the Conservative press sharpened their pencils +assiduously for the announcement which could not be very long delayed. +It must be remembered that Lloyd George in his earlier years had seemed +to take a perverse delight in being on the unpopular side, and now to +join what were called the "Pro-Germans" would really give him a chance +for unpopularity such as he might never meet again. + +He did not resign, and then the bigger men among his late opponents +began to express the hope that in the conjunction of the parties now +set up Lloyd George would come forward with his unexampled power over +the democracy of Britain and stimulate them with trumpet note to the +great effort that lay before them. I remember that Mr. Garvin, a +doughty Conservative writer, came forward with a well-attuned appeal to +Lloyd George to take the place which belonged to him as the leader of +the common people of Britain. Little did he think that before many +months were past Lloyd George would, by consent, be the leader of the +whole nation, rich and poor alike. + +For a week or two Lloyd George was quiet, and then it was announced +that he would speak at a gathering in the Queen's Hall in the West End +of London. A rush for tickets followed. I remember how crowded was +the hall and how intensely silent was every soul when Lloyd George, +wearing a gray summer suit with a black necktie, stepped to the front +of the platform. There was none of the old, fierce, gay, fighting +glitter about him. His mobile face was touched with gravity, his eyes +were thoughtful, not provocative. He stood very erect, but his chin +was drawn in a little, and his head canted forward. Responsibility lay +on him, and every one could see it. + +We all speculated on what he would say. Was he to make a half-and-half +defense of the Cabinet war policy? Was he to try to explain why he had +not resigned? He was always a master of the unexpected. What had he +in store for us now? Speaking in the midst of a dramatic silence he +said these words, slowly, almost conversationally: "There is no man who +has always regarded the prospect of engaging in a great war with +greater reluctance and greater repugnance than I have done through all +my political life. There is no man more convinced that we could not +have avoided it without national dishonor." That was the beginning of +the most effective war speech since the start of hostilities. With +scorn and logic and invective he raked the German position, and in a +thrilling outburst invoked all that was honest, loyal, and strong in +the British people to strike hard and deep on behalf of outraged +Belgium. That was the first war speech of his life. The second was +not long in following. It was made at the City Temple, a famous +Nonconformist church in the heart of London. There it was that he said +the same reason that made him a "Pro-Boer" made him an advocate of this +war by Britain. He referred to the riotous Birmingham meeting. "It +was a meeting convened to support exactly the same principle of +opposition to the idea that great and powerful empires ought to have +the right to crush small nationalities. We might have been right, we +might have been wrong, but the principle that drove me to resist even +our own country is the one that has brought me here to-night to support +my country." + +All through his life from boyhood onward Lloyd George had been a +magnetic figure, one round whom action eddied in emergency. In any +movement in which he was associated he automatically became the central +personage, the individual looked to for inspiration and for motive +power. Thus it was after his active entry into the patriotic campaign. +The silent Kitchener at the War Office, the clear-headed Mr. Asquith at +the head of the Government, were, by virtue of their positions, in the +forefront, but within a week or two the newspapers and the public were +calling attention to Lloyd George's services on behalf of the nation. +His work as Chancellor of the Exchequer was indeed important; his +personality made him even more important. + +The shock of war had dislocated the financial system of the world and +London, as the center of the financial system, was in the throes. +Imagine Lloyd George as Finance Minister and the possibilities are +obvious. Rapidly, drastically, and with his usual unexpectedness he +began to act. His Budget with its tax on property had alienated from +him the bankers and great financial houses, even where they were not +previously prejudiced by their Conservative tendencies, and he had +become anathema to them all. They had sneered at his originality, they +had called him an ignorant person and spat out their contempt at him, +but he had blithely brought them all to his will, whether they liked it +or not, cheerfully throwing in a few words of warning and denunciation +while he stripped them. Imagine, then, what he did in this crisis. He +sent confidently to these old enemies of his, the leaders of the +commercial and financial world, and said: "This country is thrown into +financial chaos. I want the assistance of the best brains of expert +people. I want you to give me your help as to the best way of putting +things straight. I require that help at once. Will you come down +immediately to 11 Downing Street and see me?" They went down to +Downing Street. It was no time to hesitate. The arch-fiend might yet +prove a savior. At Downing Street they found Lloyd George the most +courteous man in high position they had ever met. He sat at their +feet, so to speak. He listened attentively to all their opinions, and +evolved from their various statements a true picture of the case. Then +he took their suggested remedies one by one and quickly drew up schemes +of relief--all the time with their co-operation and advice. + +His quick mind pretty soon probed the length and depth of the +situation. The firebrand and mob orator was, within a period of days, +skilfully and delicately handling the tangled skein of national +finance, winning golden opinions from his ancient opponents, not only +by his mastery of technique, but also by the bold way he welded their +views for new remedies. + +Lloyd George went before the public and explained it all with a +clearness and potency which made it apparent that money was as +important as soldiers. It was in his first big speech on these lines +that he coined the phrase "silver bullets" and made the nation +understand that among his other operations was that of raising a huge +war loan, to which every patriot must subscribe. "We need all our +resources, not merely the men, but the cash. We have won with the +'silver bullet' before. We financed Europe in the greatest war we ever +fought, and that is how we won." It was in this speech that he showed +clearly the importance of giving British finance stability, and how +that stability was threatened. A boy at school might have followed his +explanation. "We have not only our own business to run; we are an +essential part of the machinery that runs the whole international trade +of the world. We provide capital and raise produce. We carry half the +produce, not merely of our own country, but of the whole world. More +than that, we provide the capital that moves that produce from one part +of the world to another, not merely for ourselves, but for other +countries. I ask every one to pick up just one little piece of paper, +one bill of exchange, to find out what we are doing. Take the cotton +trade of the world. Cotton is moved first of all from the plantation, +say to the Mississippi, then down to New Orleans, then it is moved from +there either to Great Britain or to Germany or elsewhere. Every +movement is represented by a paper signed either here in London or in +Manchester or Liverpool; one sender is practically responsible for the +whole of these transactions. Not only that, but when the United States +of America buys silk or tea from China, the payment is made through +London. By means of these documents accepted in London New York pays +for the tea bought in China. What has happened? All this fine, +delicate paper machinery has been crashed into by a great war affecting +more than half, and nearly two-thirds, of the whole population of the +world. Confusion was inevitable. It was just as if one gave a violent +kick to an ant-hill. The deadlock was not due to lack of credit in +this country; it was due entirely to the fact that there was a failure +of remittances from abroad. Take the whole of these bills of exchange. +There were balances representing between 350,000,000 pounds and +500,000,000 pounds. There was that amount of paper out at that time +with British signatures. Most of it had been discounted. The cash had +been found at home from British sources, and failure was not due to the +fact that Britain had not paid all her creditors abroad: it was due +entirely to the fact that those abroad had not paid Great Britain." + +That was the position as Lloyd George presented it, and the position +with which he proceeded to deal, in a matter of hours, handling +hundreds of millions with the confidence with which an enterprising +tradesman handles dollars. A temporary moratorium for debts was +established, balances were placed at the disposal of bankers, and +guarantees given for the payment of bills accepted by British houses. +There were other arrangements carried out equally swiftly. "An +estimate of our national assets," said Lloyd George, in explanation of +his action, "is 17,000,000,000 pounds. To allow the credit of the +country to be put in doubt for twenty-four hours in respect of +350,000,000 pounds, most of it owing to our own people, would have been +a criminal act of foolishness." + +The financial houses cried blessings on Lloyd George's head. Even the +_Daily Mail_ gave him a careful word of praise. As for a great part of +the country, it somehow got the impression that finance, under Lloyd +George, was at least as important as military operations, and indeed +the glowing speeches of the Chancellor of the Exchequer almost gave the +impression that it was more important. When the Welsh statesman flung +himself into an endeavor the business of the moment was to him the most +important thing in all the world, and his own supreme belief made other +people think so, too. By general consent Lloyd George did extremely +well in his bold, rapid, and unconventional financial policy. He was, +nevertheless, one of the first to realize that a new strong policy in +directions other than finance was necessary if ultimate victory was to +be achieved. Indeed, before the end of that fateful five months of +1914, during which a sturdy British army of less than two hundred +thousand men had, under the pressure of the German hosts, been fighting +a retreat, yard by yard and mile by mile, in a way which will live +forever in British military history, there had been forced upon Lloyd +George as one of the principal members of the Cabinet that there were +grave deficiencies at the front in equipment, that the British +soldiers, unsurpassable for valor, for their individual skill, and +their contempt of death, were being, not only overwhelmed by German +numbers, but swept down by gun-fire which was in extent and in power +tremendously superior to that of the British. It was a deadening, +horrible thought. All the fighting spirit of Lloyd George rose to meet +the emergency. His financial arrangements were in train and going +well. He was, it is true, Chancellor of the Exchequer, but he was also +Lloyd George, and with the whole impetuosity of his nature he turned +his attention to the needs of the British army in the field. His +colleagues in the Cabinet were patriots and were able men, but they had +not his lively imagination. Some of them had more technical knowledge, +but their pedestrian processes of mind took very different channels +from his lightning intuitions. I imagine sometimes that he was not +very tactful. It is impossible to doubt that this was the time when he +first became impatient with the methods of his chief, Mr. Asquith. It +is equally impossible to doubt that at this time, also, he was moved +sufficiently to challenge the policy of those in charge of the War +Office, those on whose advice the Prime Minister naturally relied. + +The existing methods were subsequently criticised as slow, +conventional, unillumined by modern experiences. Our soldiers, it was +said, were being swept out of action by an intensity and plenitude of +new high-explosive shells, while we proceeded in the use of ordinary +shells in ordinary quantities. We needed immensely greater numbers of +shells, enormously improved shells, vast amounts of high explosive, new +big guns, indeed a score of things, which were afterward obtained. +Lloyd George at this period saw that, as usual, Britain was just +"muddling through," relying on her stolidity and her power of +endurance, rather than on her initiative and striking strength. His +efforts to improve matters within Government circles could not have +endeared him to his Government colleagues. But his blood was up, and +he cared as little for their good opinion as he did for the good +opinion of the squires and clergymen when he started professional life +in Wales. + +A movement was made to increase and better equipment, but it was slow +and, in Lloyd George's view, it was ineffective. He fought on. At +length he succeeded in impressing the seriousness of the situation on +the Government, and it was just about this time that he became +possessed of a powerful ally. The _Daily Mail_, in past years the most +vindictive foe of Lloyd George, swung around to his support, took up +the cry of insufficient shells, attacked Lord Kitchener, raised a +scandal in the country. The _Times_, which now, like the _Daily Mail_, +was under the proprietorship of Lord Northcliffe, joined in the fray. +Extravagant and unjustifiable condemnation of Lord Kitchener shocked +the public, but, at the same time, there was revealed an undoubtedly +grave state of affairs in the insufficient provision of shells and +explosives and other war material. A political upheaval followed. The +Liberal Government was replaced by a Coalition Government, with Mr. +Asquith still in command, but with Conservatives in the Ministry and +with Lloyd George no longer Chancellor of the Exchequer, but Minister +of Munitions, a new post created for him, that he might organize the +country for the supply of needed war material for our soldiers at the +front. At the same time started that informal, but effective, alliance +between those sworn enemies of old, Lloyd George and Lord Northcliffe, +an alliance between the two most powerful men of action in Britain in +our generation. + + + + +IX + +THE ALLIANCE WITH NORTHCLIFFE + +I regard Lloyd George as the most interesting man in public life in +Britain to-day. There is, however, another very interesting man in the +country, though on a different plane from the Prime Minister. I mean +Lord Northcliffe--the Alfred Harmsworth who started life for himself +without help at seventeen, was a rich newspaper proprietor at thirty, +and at forty was a national figure with wealth which would satisfy the +wildest visions of any seeker after gold. He is about the same age as +Lloyd George, and he has reached his zenith at about the same time. He +is the principal owner, not only of the popular _Daily Mail_, but also +of the famous _Times_, to say nothing of some forty other journals of +various kinds. He is the inspiring spirit of all his publications, and +I should think the papers which he controls convey their message, good, +bad, or indifferent, to not less than six millions of people every day. +The range of his influence is obvious, and though it is an influence +primarily of the middle classes, it reacts upward and downward, and +makes itself felt even on those who dislike his policies. Northcliffe +is undoubtedly patriotic and is sincere, but he is, above all other +things, a newspaper man. The huge circulations of his papers tell +their story of his mind. He is a genius in knowing what will interest +the common intelligence. He has labeled himself, sincerely enough, a +Conservative in state affairs, though in his highly successful business +he has never hesitated in trampling down conventions. I have to say +this, moreover, that those who are brought into personal touch with +Northcliffe, whether they agree with his opinions or not, find in him +an appreciative employer, a generous-hearted friend, and a man always +with big impulses. He is essentially a practical man. He has no +dreams of improving the race, no gleaming visions of a community +relieved of poverty and kindred ills. + +Northcliffe was for years Lloyd George's most bitter public critic. He +has now become his ally in the government of the British Empire. +Despite the difference in their outlook on life, there are wonderful +resemblances between the two men. There are sympathies, too. +Northcliffe early recognized that Lloyd George was a person to be +watched, not because of his speeches, but because he was a man of +action and a man who got things done. On the other hand, Lloyd George, +under cruel attacks, once said, reflectively: "What a power this man +Northcliffe might be if he chose! He could carry through a political +project while we were thinking about it. We talk of tackling the +question of housing the poor people of this country. He could do it +single-handed." To this a companion pointed out that he was asking too +much of Northcliffe; he had not it in him. + +What is this newspaper magnate like to look at? He is a +heavy-shouldered man with a big, broad forehead, a massive jowl, and an +aquiline nose. His wide mouth droops at the corners. In repose there +is something of a scowl on his face, which is intensified in +displeasure as his head shoots forward aggressively and almost +wolfishly. And yet, on the other hand, in his pleasanter moments he +has a boyishness and vivacity which are attractive. Nearly all who +have been in his office, whether they are at present in his employ or +not, will tell you he is a delightful man to work with. He will come +into the reporters' room of the _Daily Mail_, sit on the edge of the +table, smoke a cigarette, and talk to the men as if he were one of +themselves. He likes them. They like him. Stories cluster round him. +A young writer went out to investigate a series of happenings in a +Midland town, was rather badly hoaxed, and was responsible for a good +deal of ridicule directly against the paper. This is a deadly sin for +a newspaper man, and the chiefs of the office were naturally severe +about the matter. The writer in question, feeling that his career on +the paper was over, went out of the office to lunch and, as bad luck +would have it, encountered Northcliffe's automobile drawing up at the +entrance. He knew "Alfred," as the proprietor is called, would be +fuming, and was the last man on earth whom it was desirable to meet in +such a mood. The young fellow braced himself for the attack as +Northcliffe beckoned him forward. "What is this I hear? You have had +your leg pulled, have you? Don't take it too much to heart. We all +get deceived sometimes. I have had my leg pulled often before now. +It's annoying, but don't worry about it." + +He was frequently through the departments, making the acquaintance of +new men, and exchanging a few sentences of conversation with the +established members of the staff. Once he stopped at the desk of a +junior sub-editor, whom he had not seen before, and said, "How long +have you been with me?" + +"About three months," was the reply. + +"How are you getting on? Do you like the work? Do you find it easy to +get into our ways?" + +"I like it very much!" + +"How much money are you getting?" + +"Five pounds a week." + +"Are you quite satisfied?" + +"Perfectly satisfied, thank you." + +"Well, you must remember this, that I want no one on my staff who is a +perfectly satisfied man with a salary of five pounds a week." + +A subordinate who had been a couple of years on the staff died as a +result of an operation for appendicitis. He had a wife and one little +child who were not very well provided for. On the day after the +funeral, Northcliffe sent down and told her he had invested 1,000 +pounds for her. Members of his staff who break down in health are sent +for a prolonged rest on full salary, and, when necessary, are +despatched abroad to recuperative climates with all their expenses +paid. He is not, however, a man who suffers fools gladly, and those +who come to him expecting, not only big salaries, but soft jobs, are +quickly swept out in a cascade of hard words. He has a sense of humor. +Once he turned the paper on to a search for an automobile which had run +over a village child and then disappeared. He found it after a time, +and it proved to be the car of his brother, Hildebrand, which, unknown +to the owner, had been taken out for a joy ride by the chauffeur. +There was something more than a chuckle among the other newspapers +because Northcliffe in his enthusiasm had publicly offered 100 pounds +reward for the discovery of the automobile and its owner. A few weeks +later Fleet Street was busy trying to disentangle the mystery of the +death of a young girl who had fallen from a railway carriage in a +tunnel on the Brighton line. Various plans for the elucidation of the +mystery were discussed between Northcliffe and the staff. In the +course of the discussion some one made the suggestion: + +"Why not offer a reward of 100 pounds for the discovery of evidence on +the matter?" + +"Yes," said Northcliffe, thoughtfully, "but where was my brother +Hildebrand on that night?" + +Deliberately placing behind him his previous attacks on Lloyd George, +attacks personal and political, Northcliffe came out in strong support +of the Minister of Munitions and plainly stated that it was only by +revolutionizing the whole conduct of the war that victory could be +assured within a reasonable time. There probably was no consultation +between the two men. The support thus given to the Welshman was, in my +opinion, perfectly genuine, and probably history will say it was a +right and excellent course, though it involved stinging comment on +Lloyd George's Cabinet associates, especially on Mr. Asquith and Lord +Kitchener. + +While this newspaper campaign was in progress Lloyd George set to work +on his new effort, and that effort was the conversion of manufacturing +Britain into a network of arsenals for the making of deadly implements +of war. Again he made his special endeavor to appear as if they were +the pivot of future victory. Forgotten for the time was finance. +"Silver bullets" were no longer mentioned. "Shells, shells, shells!" +was the cry of Lloyd George now, and the country echoed it. +Enthusiastically he proceeded with his new task, and within a few days +he had sketched a general scheme of operations, and within a few weeks +the scheme was beginning to bear fruit. The difficulties were heavy, +but he had this great advantage, that the country was prepared to do +anything and to make any sacrifice which would lead toward victory. +The established armament firms and the Government works had the task of +providing shells and guns, and Lloyd George saw at a glance that this +arrangement was tragically insufficient. To alter it he had to do many +things. He had to secure the co-operation of manufacturers, especially +the engineering firms who had been engaged in the ordinary occupations +of peace time. He had to train new workmen, he had to enlist women, he +had to persuade the trade-unions to remove their restrictions, he had +to prevent the sale of alcohol in munition districts, he had to tell +the capitalistic makers of munitions all over the country that they +were only going to be left a percentage of their profits, and that the +rest was going to be taken by the Government. This was part of his +task. Many other things had to be attended to. There was, for +instance, the matter of supply of steel from the foundries, and then, +equally important, the question of transport by the railways. It would +require a full book to tell of all the directions in which Lloyd +George's efforts were expended in the ensuing weeks. + +He went around the various big centers in the country and called +together meetings of the prominent business men, particularly +manufacturers, and suggested to them that they should form local +committees which would schedule the locality for facilities in +engineering work, and then outlined several ways in which they might +act. They might first organize all the factories engaged in ordinary +engineering work which could produce shells, or parts of shells, they +might develop a big central factory in the district where central work +could be done, and where finishing operations on partly made shells +might be carried out. Everywhere he met cordial co-operation. Within +a few weeks workshops previously used for making tramway metals, +cranes, refrigerating apparatus, automobiles, overhead wires, +agricultural implements, and many other kinds of material, were +beginning to turn themselves into shell-factories under the direction +of the local committees. Even watchmakers' shops were brought into use +for some sections of work. + +Meanwhile, Lloyd George initiated in every town and village of the +country a census of metal-working lathes, so that no tool of this kind +should be employed on needless work. Coincident with these operations, +huge national shell-factories were planned for erection in various +parts of the country. To co-operate the work of the local committees +with headquarters in London a department of the Ministry of Munitions +was set up in each big manufacturing center, and through this +department Lloyd George kept in touch with all local operations. + +Steps were taken to stimulate production by the recognized armament +firms. It was six months after Lloyd George had taken control that I +visited the Birmingham district, where I saw a new establishment for +shell-work, a huge structure on the outskirts of the city planted where +green grass was growing six months before, and under its one roof four +thousand young women engaged in long lines at automatic lathes +shell-making. This, as I said, was but one sample establishment. +Hundreds of thousands of women were subsequently at the same work in +various parts. The girls were drawn from all classes, and comprised +school-teachers, domestic servants, shopgirls, stenographers, and the +leisured daughters of the middle classes or of wealthy persons. + +Lloyd George established in London, in connection with the Ministry of +Munitions, a department of labor, to advise him on matters affecting +workmen, a department of factory health which would tell him the best +way of safeguarding the strength and efficiency of factory workers, an +inventions department to encourage and examine inventions of all kinds +which might be useful in war. He called in some of the leading +business men of the country to help him in arranging, not only +technical matters in the actual manufacture of shells and guns, but +also the transportation of them, and the material of which they were +made. He soon had around him in Whitehall a co-ordinated little army +of iron and steel experts, explosive experts, railway experts, medical +experts, and financial experts. They were the cream of business and +professional intellect of the country. Under their driving stimulus +shells and munitions began to pour out at an enormous rate. It was a +cumulative production, and the high-water mark was not reached for many +long months, but when it had been attained the production rate of +shells by Germany was well beaten. + +Lloyd George had no governmental red tape about his methods. For +instance, he ordered a notice to be put up in each of the local +munition offices, inviting callers who had inventions to submit them at +once for sympathetic examination. Any one who went to the Ministry of +Munitions in Whitehall and had real business could quickly see the +Minister. He had no use for a halo of officialdom. A thousand +difficulties rose to meet him as he built up the new organization, but +he trampled them underfoot and went forward, heedless of whether he was +making enemies or friends. An intermediate and important obstacle to +his work was the fact that many of the trade-unions of the country had +established rules which operated against an increase of production. +These rules had been built up as protection against capitalists whose +sole idea might be profits. It was necessary to sweep away these +restrictions, and one of the arguments which Lloyd George used to the +men was that he was not allowing employers to make fortunes out of the +country's need, but was taking away all but a percentage of their new +income and giving it to the Government. Even this was not sufficient +in some cases to get all the workmen in the proper frame of mind. +Lloyd George went down himself and addressed meetings of the men. Here +is an extract from one of his speeches: "The enlisted workman cannot +choose his locality of action. He cannot say, 'I am prepared to fight +at Neuve Chapelle, but I won't fight at Festubert, and I am not going +near the place called "Wipers."' He can't say, 'I have been in the +trenches ten and a half hours, and the trade-unions won't let me work +more than ten hours.' He can't say, 'You have not enough men here, and +I have been doing the work of two men, and my trade-unions won't allow +me to do more than my share.' When the house is on fire, questions of +procedure and precedence and division of labor disappear. You can't +say you are not liable to serve at three o'clock in the morning if the +fire is proceeding. You can't choose the hour. You can't argue as to +whose duty it is to carry the water-bucket and whose duty it is to put +it into a crackling furnace. You must put the fire out. There is only +one way to do it--that is, everything must give way to duty and +good-fellowship, good-comradeship, and determination. You must put the +whole of your strength into obtaining victory for your native land and +for the liberties of the world." + +The British trade-unions wanted but little persuading under such an +appeal, and rights and privileges struggled for and won at heavy cost +during half a century were cheerfully relinquished for the time being. +There was some friction among small sections in connection with the +powers taken by Lloyd George to punish workmen who struck work, or who +dislocated operations in a workshop by leaving it to seek better money. +But in the passion for victory which coursed through the veins of the +nation the ruthless doings of Lloyd George were welcomed by the +overwhelming majority of the community. He asked the English people to +submit to shackles such as they had not known since the tyranny of the +Middle Ages. They willingly and even enthusiastically agreed. + +Lloyd George not only rushed the beginning of national shell-factories, +since completed, but established large new towns of temporary houses in +country districts with something more than the rapidity of camps on a +rich gold strike. Britain, psychologically transformed, was in a large +measure physically altered also. + +And yet, when all was said and done, Lloyd George was not satisfied. +He sought to stir the Cabinet to sterner work. The Cabinet was not by +any means ineffective, but there was not enough driving force in it to +please the Welshman. He wanted far wider and stronger measures taken +in order to enlist the whole strength of the British people. Fiercely, +day by day, the Northcliffe journals attacked Mr. Asquith, often with +unfairness, and always did they exalt Lloyd George as the only man in +the Cabinet who was really fit to lead. Then Lloyd George issued a +column prognostication as the preface to a book, and it caused a great +sensation. Here is what he said: "Nothing but our best and utmost can +pull us through. If the nation hesitates when the need is clear to +take the necessary steps to call forth its young manhood to defend +honor and existence, if vital decisions are postponed until too late, +if we neglect to make ready for all probable eventualities, if, in +effect, we give ground for the accusation that we are slouching into +disaster, as if we were walking along the paths of peace without an +enemy in sight, then I can see no hope; but if we sacrifice all we own +and all we like for our native land, if our preparations are +characterized by grip, resolution, and prompt readiness in every +sphere, then victory is assured." + +This was a direct attack on the Cabinet, of which, of course, Lloyd +George was a member. His words meant that the Government was +proceeding along conventional paths, and not rising to great +emergencies, and was lacking that desperate resolution so necessary in +war. Thus it was that Lloyd George threw out to the world more than a +hint of the difficulties he had had with different departments. + +Northcliffe acclaimed this message heavens high. Some Liberals, on the +other hand, began to see in Lloyd George an intriguer for the position +of Prime Minister, and Lloyd George, not the first time in his life, +throwing past prejudices and principles to the winds, came out as a +strong supporter of conscription for the nation. Every young man must +be serving his country either in the munition-factory or on the field +of battle. + + + + +X + +AT HIGH PRESSURE + +The fundamental difficulty between Lloyd George and some of his +colleagues was that he had ideas about running the country which were +at variance with theirs. His Celtic temperament could not tolerate the +slow muddling-through process, was impatient for daring new methods. +He was disinclined for step-by-step procedure, and found reason for +anger in the officials and Ministers who thought the war ought to be +conducted according to book. There has yet to be told the full story, +not only of all the obstacles which Lloyd George had to remove from his +path in organizing the munition supply, but also of the hindrances +which fettered the prosecution of the war as a whole with every ounce +of strength, every shilling of money, at the disposal of the British +nation. + +I can imagine that Lloyd George was not a very pleasant colleague in +the Cabinet during these intervening months. When the records come to +be given it will be seen that he was constantly and furiously striking +at the iron bars of custom and routine, that he was trying to turn the +lip service of individuals to practical service. At times he reached +the edge of desperate action. + +It was in the thick of his other work that a crisis arose in South +Wales, where the miners, numbering two hundred thousand, responsible +for the supply of coal to the British navy, refused to work unless the +employers conceded certain demands about pay and conditions. The +seriousness of the position was appalling. The president of the Board +of Trade, Mr. Runciman, struggled hard to bring about a settlement. He +failed. Something had to be done and done at once. The country, +looking around for a man to come to the rescue, fixed on Lloyd George. +He left the Ministry of Munitions in Whitehall, took a train down to +South Wales, had a straight talk with the employers, another straight +talk with the men, and in one day settled affairs and got the men to +continue their work. I cite this as a passing illustration of how +Lloyd George was Britain's man-of-all-work, and of how the nation had +to turn to him practically every time it was in difficulty. + +While struggling to speed up the Cabinet on a hundred matters Lloyd +George became impressed with the necessity of increasing the size of +the British army, already millions strong. The voluntary system had +hitherto been relied on, and there was strong opposition, both in the +Cabinet and in the country, to tentative proposals for conscription. +Lloyd George took an early opportunity of showing that he was on the +side of the conscriptionists. There was an outburst of protests, but +it proved of no avail, and it was largely through Lloyd George that +conscription in Britain became an established fact. Even then he was +by no means satisfied with the way affairs were being handled, and the +newspapers were speculating on his next big attempt, when tragedy +descended on the country in the unexpected death of Lord Kitchener by +the sinking of the war-ship _Hampshire_ off the coast of Scotland. +Kitchener had been Minister for War. Who was to be the new man? There +was really only one man in the running, and Lloyd George forsook his +munition work, now practically accomplished, and went over to take +charge of the War Office. Coincident with his acceptance of this post +new arrangements in the organization were made, and it was no doubt +largely by his influence that General Sir William Robertson was +installed at Whitehall as Chief of Staff, virtually commander-in-chief +of the British armies. He was a man after Lloyd George's own heart, a +soldier who had risen from the ranks, a quiet man who would stand no +nonsense, and one who knew modern war conditions from A to Z. + +Here, then, began a new phase of the European conflict. From the +shops, offices, farms, and factories of Britain there had sprung up an +amateur army, millions strong, and the organization of this new +national force was under the supervision and control of a Minister who +began life as a village boy in a cottage of a shoemaker, and under the +military direction of a commander-in-chief who also sprang from the +common people, and as a young man was an ordinary trooper in the ranks. +It could never henceforth be said that Britain, the most aristocratic +country on earth, had not been content to hand over the reins to +democracy in the greatest emergency of her history. Robertson and +Lloyd George worked well together, and there can be no doubt that under +their joint effects the British forces in the field attained a fighting +value which was not excelled by any other army in existence on either +side in the great conflict. + +Frequently Lloyd George was in the trenches at the front. From time to +time he was deep in consultation in Paris or at home with the leading +statesmen and commanders of France, Italy, and Russia. All this was +only a few months ago. I saw him in the House of Commons at the time. +The strain was undoubtedly telling on him, but was not oppressing him. +His hair was a little whiter, his face was pallid, and thinner than of +yore, but his eyes were like burning coals. He had much to bear apart +from the actual work, for there were large sections of politicians and +several influential newspapers who openly said that ambition was his +curse, that he was undermining Mr. Asquith who had been his greatest +political friend, and that all his discontent was directed toward an +ultimate dramatic stroke which would make him Prime Minister. Many of +the Liberals who used almost to worship him made no secret of the fact +that he had lost their allegiance, while the extreme Socialists +denounced him as a traitor to the working classes, inasmuch as he was +tyrannizing over them by his war measures. Moreover, many of his +opponents in the Cabinet must have regarded him with some feeling of +distrust. He said no word in defense of Mr. Asquith, whom the +Northcliffe press persistently and violently assailed. The conclusion +is inevitable that Lloyd George shared some of the opinions then +expressed. Taking Lloyd George's nature into account, the situation +may be imagined, and it was not hard to see that a climax must come +sooner or later. + +It was approaching swiftly. Meanwhile the transformation of Britain in +which Lloyd George had had so large a hand was proceeding. No longer +could it be said that the old country was lethargic. In all directions +was the elementary strength of this stolid people manifesting itself. +Classes were uniting in the determination that there should be +limitless spending of energy, of blood, and of treasure, that the +harder grew the fight the stronger should be the will, the livelier the +action, till the great danger was trodden finally underfoot. For +months past it could have been said: + + All the youth of England are on fire + And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies. + + +Now most of the people had reached the decision that nothing but +extermination should lead to their defeat. + + And leave your England as dead midnight still, + Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women, + Either past or not arrived to pith and puissance, + For who is he whose chin is but enrich'd + With one appearing hair that will not follow + Those cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France? + + +It was really a very-much-alive England, though strangely changed, +which the amateur fighters had left behind them on their departure for +the field of war. Tens of thousands of women unaccustomed to hard +labor were tiring their bodies from early morning till night so that +there would be more men for the fighting-line. The state had virtual +possession of the great industries, of engineering, of railway +transportation, and of shipping. The liquor trade had been cut down to +narrow limits which, while it benefited the health and efficiency of +the population, ruined financially a great many property-owners. The +trade-unions had relinquished their rights, so that every hour of the +day and night there should be no strong and healthy arm which was not +lending aid to the country in its need. Every man in the country up to +the age of forty was either in the army or doing some useful war work +at home. + +Steps had been taken to prevent the price of coal being raised to +consumers, and this was shortly to be followed by the Government +acquisition of the whole of the South Wales coal-field. Already a +movement was afoot to regulate the food-supply and to restrict +expensive luxuries. At the head of these tremendous changes was Lloyd +George, whose so-called socialistic legislation a few years before had +roused spasms of rage among classes which now belauded his every action +and announced him as the coming savior of his country. If there is any +consistency in human nature at all, it is hardly possible that there +were not those who recalled his incendiary speeches, his unsparing +legislative action of the Budget days. And yet there were no +complaints. Millionaires placed their money at his disposal. The +dukes paid him homage. All the while Lloyd George grew harder in the +face. Big changes were still necessary if the war was to be brought to +an end victoriously and rapidly. + +I have indicated the Minister for War as the moving spirit in all those +changes of that tangled period, but he was only a single member of the +Ministry which set them in motion, although there could be no doubt in +the mind of any one really acquainted with public affairs in Britain at +this time that his was the driving force behind the reforms, that they +were largely forced on by his resistless spirit, even as he was +desirous to push them further and quicken the pace. Meanwhile in +France, in Italy, and in Russia Lloyd George's name roused enthusiasm +wherever it was mentioned. News from America indicated that he was +well known and much talked of there. In the Scandinavian capitals +which I visited toward the close of 1916 I found that it was Lloyd +George whom the statesmen, the professors, the business men, and the +common people were eager to hear about above all others. In Germany he +was hated and feared more than any other British statesman. + + + + +XI + +HIS INCONSISTENCIES + +According to all the rules which are supposed to guide the rise of a +self-made man, Lloyd George should have been a master of routine, with +the orderly mind and undeviating habits without which we are sometimes +told no person of affairs can secure permanent success. It is much to +be regretted that Lloyd George lends no aid to the well-established +maxims. The teachers and preachers who seek to implant in the young +the principles of continuousness of purpose and of regularity and of +kindred qualities must turn their backs on Lloyd George. They will +find nothing from him to go into the text-books, for in the course of +his career the Welsh statesman has trampled on every sound rule for +securing success. That a man with so many contradictions in him should +have ever maintained his upward course is not encouraging to the +formalists, though it is very interesting to ordinary people. + +There never was a man who could more quickly master the intricacies of +a business problem, and yet from his very early days he was quite +unbusiness-like in many things. He laughingly says that as a young +lawyer down in Wales he showed serious incapacity in his profession, at +least in one respect: "I never sent in any bill of costs. The result +was I never had any money." Later when his brother, three years +younger than himself, joined him in partnership matters improved. "The +firm did not then suffer from this serious professional drawback," +explained Lloyd George. He is an adept at phrases, and yet all through +his life he has hated writing. There is a tradition among some of his +friends that even in his less busy periods, if you wanted to get a +reply from him on any topic you had to send him two postcards addressed +to yourself, on one of which was written, "Yes," and on the other, +"No." This, it was said, was the only way you could make sure of a +prompt response, or indeed of any response at all. He has been the +supreme business organizer of Britain during the war--in finance, in +industrial operations, and latterly in actual army work--and in each +direction he has sketched out and carried into effect an intensive +efficiency which it is not too much to describe as the admiration of +the world, yet all the time his office day-by-day arrangements would +certainly shock the ordinary merchant or banker. He makes contingent +appointments and forgets all about them. Some incidental scheme +adopted by him on a Saturday is on Monday thrust into limbo by the +pressure of other schemes. If he were to schedule his office day into +five-minute appointments he would still be unable to see only a +proportion of the important men and executive chiefs who desire to get +in touch with him, and yet he will allow himself to be drawn into an +hour's keen discussion with persons who have some minor topic which +appeals to him. Withal, he gets things done. Some intuition, some +instinct for right action, takes him to his goal. The task in hand is +always accomplished to the limit of efficiency. You may seek his +secret in vain. Probably part of it lies in his natural power of +selecting his instruments. All the same I do not envy the lot of his +two principal private men secretaries and the girl stenographer whose +business it is to follow and, to some extent, direct his erratic course +throughout his office hours. + +His speeches which in their printed form sell literally by the million, +are scarcely prepared at all before he gets on the platform. Sometimes +the wording as it appears in cold black and white lacks a little +polish, but it has a vital and stimulating force marking it out as +distinctive literature. He has a few notes as to facts and figures and +weaves them into a picture as he stands before his audience. When his +famous speech at Limehouse thrilled England a London newspaper +proprietor went down to see him in the House of Commons. "Why didn't +you let me know you were going to make that speech?" he said. "I would +have had special arrangements made for reporting it and describing it." +"There was nothing special in it," said Lloyd George, in genuine +surprise. "It was just an ordinary talk about the Budget. I went down +to Limehouse and spoke to an audience I found there, that's all." + +No one will deny Lloyd George's courage. On a hundred stricken fields +he has shown it. Yet he confesses to a timorousness and nervousness +whenever he is waiting on a public platform with a speech ahead of him. +This proven, stern man of action is just a trembling bunch of nerves, +afraid of the people in front of him, afraid of the people by his side +on the platform, as he sits waiting the fateful second when the +chairman shall announce his name. + +Lloyd George's unexpectedness comes from the fact that he is a +many-sided man. Success has not atrophied either his manners or his +impulses. He is not ashamed to be very human because he has become +very important. I remember how, during the stress of the Budget fight, +when, if ever, he was at a tension, he went off for a week-end with the +Attorney-General and a distinguished journalist. They had a railway +compartment to themselves on the journey from London. Part of the time +was passed in singing popular songs, the choruses of which Lloyd George +trilled out enthusiastically. And yet Lloyd George is not a stranger +to the formalities. High office brought to him a marked care for those +little chivalries which are part of Parliamentary warfare. In the +height of the fight fatigue sometimes overwhelmed even his sturdy frame +and spirit, and he would snatch half an hour's respite from the +Treasury bench in his own room behind the Speaker's chair. But he +would break off this short indulgence instantly when the ticker +indicated that his principal opponents had begun to speak. Directly it +was shown that Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Mr. Balfour, or some other +leader was on his feet Lloyd George would hurry into the chamber to +listen, even though he might know perfectly well that they had nothing +to say that mattered at the moment. He regarded it as important to pay +them the courtesy of listening to any speech they made, however casual +or trivial. + +One of the charges against Lloyd George during his public life has been +his inaccuracy in small things, his disregard of detail, and in some +ways this is a justifiable charge. And yet the man has a perfect +passion for detail when he is aroused and when he believes detail +necessary. In instituting the Department of Munitions he made himself +in the course of only a week or two a real expert in the hundred +intricacies connected with the manufacture of shells. Short of +handling the steel himself I doubt if there was any man in the country, +who knew more about the nature of all the deadly missiles, from the +small rifle bullet up to the great shell which weighs a ton and travels +some fifteen miles. Delicate chemical processes connected with high +explosives rapidly became an open book to him. As new discoveries were +made incidental difficulties connected with the filling of shells +occupied the concentered study of the manufacturers. Lloyd George +plunged into the new arrangements. One morning he had an appointment +in London with a group of half a dozen munition-makers from the north +of England and the Midlands for the purpose of investigating some +special difficulties in a new process. The matter was one of +importance as well as of difficulty. Point by point was taken and +lunch-time arrived without a complete elucidation. Lloyd George swept +aside all other appointments for the day. The thing had got to be +mastered. He took the six experts out with him to lunch and went on +with the discussion over the meal. He brought them back to the +Munition Department afterward and he went on with the matter all the +afternoon. Tea was served, and still he would not let his advisers +escape. It was nearly dinner-time before the difficulties were +conquered and the tired experts were permitted to go. Lloyd George, +cheered by the achievement, had a little food, and then proceeded to +work far into the night to clear up some of the arrears of the day's +routine. As for the staff, they had to work, too. There are no easy +times for those associated with Lloyd George when he is under pressure. + +These are examples from recent times, but throughout the whole of his +career there have been contradictions which have staggered friends as +well as enemies. I do not believe there is a more sincere man in +public life; there certainly is no shrewder one, and yet when he was +Chancellor of the Exchequer in charge of the finances of the country he +was imprudent enough in an impulsive moment to invest privately some +hundreds of pounds in a commercial company, an investment perfectly +innocent in itself, but one which a worldly-wise person would have +realized must lay open to attack any Chancellor of the Exchequer who +had enemies. He never gave the thing a thought. He had always been a +comparatively poor man. He saw a good investment and he put some of +his savings into it. His opponents became aware of the matter, and in +storms of virtuous passion held him up to execration as a corrupt +politician who was using his position to make himself rich. There were +bursts of unholy joy among the Conservatives. That innocent investment +in Marconi shares was perhaps the most stupid thing in Lloyd George's +public life. He gave his explanation with vigor and clearness, but, +nevertheless, I fancy he must have kicked himself privately about the +whole thing. Notwithstanding, however, the disadvantage at which he +had placed himself, opponents found that now, as on other occasions, it +was not a pleasant exercise to attack the Welshman. He had a horrid +habit of defending himself by hitting back, and he usually hit very +much harder than his attackers were capable of doing. When the dukes +and earls fell on him in all their noble rage and dignity he culled +stories from the past about them. One of the attacks on him was by +Earl Selborne, who had been a Cabinet Minister in a Conservative +administration. Lloyd George permitted himself no false delicacy about +the noble earl. "He contends there is no correspondence between his +story and mine. He is quite right. I have already pointed out the +essential difference. I bought shares in a company which had no +contract with the Government, and my purchase of even these shares was +subsequent to the acceptance of the wireless tender by the Government. +Earl Selborne was a director of a company during the time it was +initiating and acquiring a huge contract with the Government, of which +he was a member. His story is, therefore, not mine." + +There had probably never been a politician in British public life who +was so affectionately regarded by all those persons who were brought +into personal contact with him, whether they agreed with him or not. +Pressmen whose duty it was to berate him in the papers were generally +fond of him personally. Opponents in the House of Commons when not +engaged in combat had, in most cases, an active liking for him. +Business men and persons not connected with politics after once meeting +him had nothing but good to say of the "Welsh demagogue." And in face +of all this Lloyd George has truly been the most hated man of his +generation. He used to chuckle over it--which sent his opponents to +the last degree of fury. "The dukes," he would remark, cheerily, "are +scolding like omnibus-drivers, and the lords swearing like +stable-boys." He would fling out his hand with a humorously despairing +gesture about it. + +Lloyd George was not very precise in his attacks sometimes. Though he +was very rarely, perhaps never, successfully challenged on the general +basis of his charges, his vivid wording always brought on him a flood +of recriminations. He was called an "ignorant demagogue," an +"unscrupulous electioneer," was accused of using "false sentiment" and +of "setting class against class." His principal weapons throughout, it +was said, were his inaccuracies and offensive personalities. The +exasperated Conservatives, only a few months before the war, secured +the time of the House of Commons to indict him for some of these sins. +Here was the resolution moved from the Conservative benches: "That this +House contemplates with regret the repeated inaccuracies of the +Chancellor of the Exchequer and his gross and unfounded charges upon +individuals." No motion could have pleased Lloyd George better. +Ponderous and dignified were the speeches against him. He replied with +a quizzical lightness, and did not refrain from personal remarks even +in the course of his defense. He demonstrated the general accuracy of +his speeches, ridiculed the indictment against himself, and showed how +it arose partly from political prejudices, partly from the mental +obtuseness and anger of his opponents. A portion of his speech +recalled the things the Conservatives attacking him said about Joseph +Chamberlain, now one of their idols. They were remarks made during +Chamberlain's radical days. + +"One Tory Minister said he spoke 'with customary inaccuracy.' Another +Minister talked about 'his habitual incapacity for being accurate.' +Another said he was 'setting class against class.' The _Times_, using +the language of the gentleman in opposition to-night, said he was +'forgetting what was due to his dignity and responsibility as a Cabinet +Minister.' He was compared by the leader of the House to 'Jack Cade.' +Another called him 'an unscrupulous demagogue.' Another said he was +'weeping crocodile tears for electioneering purposes.' I seem to +recognize some of these epithets. I am amazed at the lack of +imagination in the vituperation of honorable men opposite." When the +laughter and cheering had died away Lloyd George said that Chamberlain +was fifty at the time these things were uttered, the age at which he +himself stood. "So there is hope for me," he said. It is difficult to +tackle a man like that. + +No one would deny that Lloyd George has gone back on many of the +opinions he used to hold so firmly. The exhilarating names he called +members of the House of Lords have been replaced by invitations to some +of them to join him as Ministers in a Cabinet of which he is the head. +No doubt he would give good reasons for the change, but the fact +remains. His mobile mind is ever adapting itself to what he considers +the exigencies of the times, though no one could with less justice be +named a time-server. "Other times, other means, other manners" may be +described as his attitude of mind. If at the moment the welfare of the +community in his judgment demanded certain courses of action no words +of his in the past, no principles that he had held, would prevent him +from adapting himself or from using whatever powers lay to his hand. +As motive forces in social life are almost invariably to be obtained +from individuals, Lloyd George without shame and without hesitation has +proceeded to use individualities wherever he found them suitable for +his purpose. Meanwhile the worshiper of consistency can find in him no +idol. + +The crowning inconsistency of Lloyd George's career I have not yet +described. So far as he owed success in life to any man except himself +he owed it to Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister. Lloyd George has all +the sensitiveness and affection of the Celtic nature, and must +certainly have had within him a well of gratitude to this man who had +been so great a friend to him. Yet it came about that he eventually +decided it was his duty to pull this man from the throne and take his +place there. + + + + +XII + +HOW HE BECAME PRIME MINISTER + +In some lights it seems rather a shabby thing that Lloyd George should +have ousted Mr. Asquith and taken his place as Prime Minister. Mr. +Asquith, with great intellectual attainments and with the highest +attributes of an English gentleman, had been at the head of the British +Government for eight years, and during this period big achievements had +been inscribed on Britain's story. He had been a strong and constant +friend of Lloyd George who, under his leadership, had risen from the +position of a minor Minister to giant eminence. Then at a crucial +moment Lloyd George overthrew him. Stated baldly like that, the thing +doesn't read very well. I believe there are some leaders in England +who will never forgive Lloyd George. It remains to be said that they +are taking a narrow and immediate view of a drama so immense that its +proper perspective will only be available many years hence. They are +trying to test men's souls under strain in a small mechanical balance. +Forces were at work such as are only met with once or twice in +centuries. You cannot bring a puny, every-day judgment to bear on +issues which may mean misery or happiness to millions of people, and +life or death to a great proportion of them. In such circumstances the +raw strength of big men comes out, and the spectacle is not always +pleasant to the gentle-minded. + +I am not one of those who believe that Lloyd George sordidly schemed to +become Prime Minister, though I am sure that in some side reflections +from time to time he realized quite certainly that one day he would be +Prime Minister of his country. I believe that from the moment he +decided the war was a right one and must be pressed to victory he +concentrated the whole of his heart and soul, all of his bewildering +and compelling properties, to the task of securing victory. And that +the remarkable success he attained, first in the sphere of finance, +then in the provision of munitions, thirdly in the raising of armies +and general organization for battle, led him quickly to a vision of the +whole contest, a vision unshared by his colleagues, but of dazzling +clearness to himself. + +His whole being, designed for the emergencies of combat, quivered and +thrilled as he saw the hundred directions in which urgency and rapidity +and ruthlessness could forge the weapons of success. I believe he was +completely selfless about the matter. He made efforts to touch various +spheres of war organization with the white-hot spirit which possessed +himself, and became partly the terror, partly the admiration, of those +among whom he moved. And then, realizing more and more, week by week, +what he regarded as the inertia in the departments that ran the +country, and seeing the importance of stirring the feelings of his +principal Cabinet colleagues to wholesale, passionate, fear-nothing +strokes which should bring the end of the war within sight, there grew +upon him resistlessly the thought that he must himself secure supreme +control of the war in Britain. I believe the idea took hold of him, +not from any vulgar motive, but in the way that religion grows upon a +man, possessing him utterly, leaving him heedless of the criticism +directed against his personal aims. + +What was the system he was up against? In the British Cabinet each +Minister is the head of his own department, and in normal times the +Prime Minister doesn't interfere in the departments, although, as +chairman of the Cabinet, his consent has to be given to any big +national policy initiated by another Minister. Mr. Asquith had strong +and clever men around him, and, quite apart from the fact that he was +the most chivalrous of chiefs, he trusted their capacity. Strong and +capable as they were, they had not the flashing genius of Lloyd George, +certainly had not his genius for war, implying large decisions and +great risks. They plodded along and threshed out plans and put some of +them into execution. To Lloyd George both the plans and the way they +were carried out were half-hearted. To him there was always delay, +never the stark action which he believed was everywhere necessary. +Decisions were taken too late and were not carried out with promptitude +or thoroughness. + +For months Lloyd George was in a state of simmering revolt. He +received support from powerful organs in the press, notably from the +_Times_ and _Daily Mail_. The tone of their criticism is best +summarized in the suggestion that Mr. Asquith was "an amiable old +gentleman," unfitted for the position of leader of a nation at war for +its life. Far less than justice was accorded him, but under the stress +of war the most stolid people became impatient, and there was +undoubtedly manifested in many sections of the public a desire for more +strenuous leadership. The difficulties with which Mr. Asquith had had +to contend were certainly not fully appreciated, though they will be +later on. He was the head of a Coalition Government, and had kept that +Government together with a managing skill to which everybody paid +tribute. The claim of the Lloyd George supporters was that qualities +different from those required for the skilful handling of a Government +were necessary in a war Prime Minister. It looks as if Lloyd George +shared this opinion. He came to the conclusion that he must make his +stroke. One fateful day he presented to Mr. Asquith an ultimatum to +the effect that the conduct of the war should be placed in the hands of +a small committee of three or four members who should have absolute +power, and that Mr. Asquith himself should not be on it, or, if so, +should be a member in name only. + +Mr. Asquith tried to get him to compromise. Lloyd George would have +none of it. If Mr. Asquith would not agree he would resign, he said, +and he was supported by the Conservative members of the Government. +Mr. Asquith and his supporters would not give way. There were one or +two exciting days of secret negotiations, and then, a deadlock being +reached, there was but one course to be pursued, and that was for the +entire Cabinet to place its resignation in the hands of the King. It +must have been a bitter moment for Mr. Asquith. Indeed, it was +probably an unhappy time for Lloyd George. Nevertheless, he flinched +not. + +The whole Cabinet went out of office. The King, who is bound by +precedent, sent for the leader of the Conservatives, Mr. Bonar Law, and +offered him the position of Prime Minister and the task of forming a +Government. Owing to the split-up of the parties and the various +cross-currents, Mr. Law felt himself unable to carry out the formal +request of the King. Then the expected happened, and the King sent for +Lloyd George, who promptly expressed his willingness to try to form a +Government, so long as he was assisted in the task by Mr. Bonar Law. +He was successful. His Cabinet, rapidly brought into being, consisted +of several Labor men, several Conservatives, some notable members of +the House of Lords, and also, quite a novel feature, some captains of +industry, whom Lloyd George took from their private businesses to run +the business departments of the state. A war council was formed, +consisting of Lloyd George himself; Mr. Arthur Henderson, the leader of +the Labor movement; Lord Curzon, and Lord Milner. (The most recent +claims to distinction of the latter two was their violent opposition to +Lloyd George's Budget and the Parliament bill.) The sum total of +arrangements was that the new Prime Minister became virtually a +dictator. He rules England to-day. + +What will be his record as Prime Minister? It may be taken as a +certainty that his tenure of office will be a memorable chapter in +English history. That he will use to the utmost his natural powers in +bringing the war to a conclusion satisfactory to his country goes +without saying. I am inclined to think that there is no one who yet +realizes the lengths to which he will go in order to secure victory. +No precedent will stand in his way, no consideration of popularity or +unpopularity will deter him. That he may break himself in his attempt +is a trifle to him. I do not think he will break himself, for he has +reserves not usually found in a single personality. Obloquy may again +take the place of the praise which now encircles him. He may yet be +assailed by some of the new colleagues whom he has chosen, and the +newspapers which have supported him may turn against him. But if he +lives and preserves his health he will win the war. He is not entirely +admirable, but nothing will obliterate his powers of success but +extinction. + +He has the imagination to envisage the uncountable forces at his +disposal in the British Empire, and if need be he will use these forces +to their very limits. Already he has proceeded on new lines. With +that intense practicalness which goes with his spiritual exaltation he +has appointed a grocer and a provision-dealer to control the +food-supplies of the country, has put a ship-owner at the head of the +mercantile marine, has given to a man who was a working steel-smelter +the unshackled control of labor, has chosen as another Cabinet Minister +a young American who has made a fortune in business--staggering +appointments indeed for conservative old England. But that is only a +beginning. The Prime Minister has hitherto been but the titular head +of the various departments of his Government, but now he is going to be +the real head, for Lloyd George has set up a Prime Minister's +Department which co-ordinates continually all the various Government +offices. Lloyd George means to be no mere figure of dignity as a Prime +Minister. + +What more can he do? There is no end to the war expedients which are +to his hand if the conflict with Germany goes on. If more young men +are wanted for the army I can see him levying the whole of the women in +the country for work on the farms and in the offices or its shops. He +may turn his eyes to the overseas dominions, where there are scores of +millions of population from which separate vast new armies may be +drawn. I have little doubt that erelong the enemies of Britain will +come up against the quality of unexpectedness which has so often +discouraged his opponents at home. No field of endeavor will be closed +to him. I can even see him with a board of inventors and constructors +setting to work to provide, let us say, a fleet of one hundred thousand +aeroplanes which shall, in truth, make the invasion of Germany +possible. There are other novel fields of effort with potentialities +of equal or even greater scope. + +It was complained of Mr. Asquith that he was too much of a gentleman, +too kindly and considerate even to those who harassed him, that he +feared to repress those who strove to make his tenure of office +impossible. There will not be any nonsense of that kind about Lloyd +George. Heaven help those who, however highly placed and whatever +their services to him in the past, now stand in his way. Interesting +suggestions have been made that his recent alliance with Northcliffe +was a fatal mistake for him, because Northcliffe, in pursuit of +newspaper sensations, combined with patriotic aims, having helped to +place him in the seat of power, will presently turn on him without +scruple and without mercy. Well, there may even be an attempt in that +direction. I know both men pretty thoroughly, having been brought into +personal contact with each, and watched the work and studied the power +of both of them for years. If Northcliffe attempts any action of the +kind indicated he will find that he has gone out for a walk with a +tiger. He has no dignified Mr. Asquith to deal with now. If +Northcliffe, by any journalistic sensations, interferes in what in +Lloyd George's opinion is the proper and efficient conduct of the war, +Lloyd George will break him like a twig and without a second thought. +Some people of Britain talk of what will happen to Lloyd George when +Northcliffe throws him over. One can only smile. To stop the +publication of the _Daily Mail_ and the _Times_, wrecking a million +pounds' worth of private property at least, and ruining Northcliffe on +the way, will be twenty minutes' cheery work for Lloyd George in his +present mood, if he thinks the interests of Britain demand it. + +It will be found from now until the treaty of peace is signed that +Lloyd George will be the personal director of democratic Britain, as +grim an autocrat as was Oliver Cromwell, and when the plenipotentiaries +meet around a table to settle terms there will be among them the +blue-eyed Welshman, pleasant of manners and with iron will, putting in +some commas and taking out the clauses he doesn't like. + + + + +XIII + +THE FUTURE OF LLOYD GEORGE + +When this war is concluded there must be a new era for the world. +Already there are signs of its approach. Generations hence there may +again be awful conflicts between nations, spasms of hell in which the +blood and anguish of millions will pay their tribute to the beast in +man, but it will not be in our time, and in the interval, the beginning +of which must be upon us very quickly, a new order of things will arise +among the civilized people of the globe. Stricken humanity will insist +on happier prospects for its children and its children's children. In +the formulation of that new order of things I can see Lloyd George as +one of the main instruments. + +In the first place, Britain will be a revivified country after the war, +chastened in some ways, teeming with new thoughts, pulsing with a new +virility for at least a generation. Class prejudice will be lessened, +perhaps in some directions will be completely wiped out. There will +probably be a centralized effort after the trials which all the people +have suffered together to reconstruct the social fabric so that all the +people of the country, with the exception of those who are lazy or +criminal, shall have the means by which they may be able to secure a +decent livelihood and need have no fear of poverty-stricken old age. I +foresee the disintegration of the older political parties and the +building up of new ones, in which the great contending features will be +the means and methods by which the new Britain shall be established. +The old party shibboleths will be swept away. Mere words and windy +generalities will be displaced from influence and the nation's leaders +will deal with facts. + +The education of the war has brought everybody in the country up +against hard realities. While prejudices and so-called principles have +been put in the background, there has been going on a learning of new +lessons. Lloyd George will undoubtedly be the main figure in the +building up of the national edifice. The war will effect political +changes which a generation of Parliamentary efforts could not have +brought about. Hundreds of thousands of men drawn from shops, +factories, offices, who have been hardened and stimulated by their +out-of-doors campaigning, will be averse from returning to their old +drab conditions, and coincident with this the rich and beautiful +farmlands of England will be made available in holdings for such as +wish to settle on the land and to establish themselves there. Cottage +dwellings and farm buildings will be put up by the thousand with the +assistance of the state. The settlers from the towns will not only +find health for themselves and families, but by their activities will +add enormously to the food-supplies of the country through their market +gardens, their dairy farms, as well as by the extra corn which will be +produced by them. + +Lloyd George's heart and soul will be in this project, for, country +born and bred as he is, he knows not only the troubles, but also the +opportunities and the personal joys of the population on the land. I +regard a revolution on these lines in England as a practical certainty. +It may be asked, Where is the money to come from for all this? The +answer is, that loans from the state are inevitable, but they will be +remunerative loans which presently will yield returns, not only in the +shape of interest, but in new food-supplies and also, not less +important, in the benefits of new physical strength and new happiness +in life to big sections of the population. Sacrifices will be asked +for from the great land-owners, but they will be sacrifices of +sentiment rather than of money, because these proprietors will +certainly be well recompensed financially for any land that is taken +from them. + +But this transformation in the countryside will be only one phase of +the new Britain. Virtual revolution is certain in town life--and +something like forty millions out of the fifty millions of population +have their present homes in towns and cities, and not in the country. +A great stimulation of production may be looked for under the lessons +of war-time. Scores of inventions have been devised under the strain +of the war's demands and the discoveries in chemistry, in mechanics, +and in other directions will remodel certain industries and create +fresh ones. Novel methods of organization have been brought into use +and have greatly aided efficiency, but even these developments will be +but supplementary to the changes in the methods of British industrial +life. The Labor movement of Britain, which has obtained during the war +a political power previously unknown in British Government, has altered +its modes of procedure, subordinated its laws, and generally +transfigured itself. The position can never be readjusted to the old +basis. This will carry with it remarkable results. Something like +three million trade-unionists constitute the effective Labor movement +of Britain, and the unions, with their rights and privileges, have only +been built up by half a century of struggle against prejudice, against +material interests, against opposition in Parliament. In the last ten +years, however, enormous progress has been made. Forty Labor men have +seats in the legislature, and the combination of trade-union rules and +regulations safeguarding workmen and restricting employers has become +as effective as a legal charter. Hours and conditions of labor as well +as wage rates in the various trades have been set up and continually +strengthened with a view to prevent exploitation by employers, and +though there is necessarily a running struggle with regard to isolated +matters, there has come to exist, on the whole, amicable relations +between the great unions, on the one side, and the great employers, on +the other. Under Lloyd George's appeals during the war trade-unions +have flung overboard the restrictions they had imposed, have permitted +unskilled people to come in and do parts of their work, permitted women +to take a hand, allowed employers to increase hours of work, and +voluntarily have taken upon themselves the old burdens which they had +fought so long to shake off. They have had at least this recompense +that, so far as money is concerned, they have not been badly off. In +important industries, notably in munition-making, piece-work--payment +according to work accomplished--is the rule, with the result that large +sums are earned by those who choose to work hard and to work early and +late. The general result of all this has been a marvelously +accelerated output of material as compared with that which would have +been produced under old conditions. The unions have the promise of the +Government that all their old rules shall be restored after the war if +they want them. It has become inconceivable that incidental advantage +secured in these abnormal times shall be thrown away when peace comes +just because of a traditional adherence to principle. Employers, also, +seeing the tremendously increased results, will be eager to maintain +the new acceleration. Are the unions, for the sake of old prejudices, +to put back the clock and throw out all the employment of the women who +have entered the hitherto-reserved industries, and to abolish the +overtime work? Are they, moreover, to return to the old principles of +prohibiting an operative from doing more than a certain amount of work +in a certain time--a practice quite defensible so far as it arose from +the greed of employers who, with their men on piece-work, finding the +rate of production increased, promptly put back the rate of payment so +that workpeople should never earn more than a certain amount by day or +by week? Is there to be a reaction in all these directions? There is +not. Unions will not want all their old provisions, but they will want +new ones in their places. And the arrangements which will have to be +made, and which Lloyd George will undoubtedly have a large share in +making, will lead to the establishment of an entirely new system which, +while giving employers a wider field of labor and an immensely +increased production, will, at the same time, provide working-men and +women with greatly enlarged earning capacity, an earning capacity which +will be largely based on their own energy, initiative, and persistence. +A wide extension of what may be called co-operative payment by results +may be looked for. + +The good-will among classes introduced by the war will certainly help +the changes. The net result to be looked for is a practical abolition +of unemployment, the extension of the area of labor to great numbers of +women, increased earning powers for individuals, and still more for the +families as a whole, and a greater output of all kinds of products, not +only manufactured articles, but also food products from the land. +Accompanying all this will be higher profits for employers. + +That this revolution can be accomplished in a day or even in a year is +not to be expected. That it is the direction in which British social +life is bound to trend cannot be doubted. I see Lloyd George as the +engineer-in-chief of the whole operation. In conjunction with the new +national land scheme the industrial reformation will provide a policy +with a far-reaching scope and a practicability which will appeal to his +long-sighted vision, his active mind, his scorn of past usages which +litter the road of progress. That he will attempt to recreate the new +social system on the wreckage of that which has been destroyed by the +war I think is beyond all question. + +But Lloyd George's future destiny is not confined to his work for his +own race and nation. The war has lifted him to international +prominence. He is now and will be henceforth the most-talked-of +British statesman in all other civilized countries. He will still have +enemies who will detest him, but no one in the future will attempt to +deny his effectiveness. Respect will be accorded him by the statesmen +of other nations and the democracy of other nations, the latter of whom +will remember his lifelong fight for the poor. Such a man may well be +of influence in determining not only the fate of his own people, but +also the fate of the civilized community at large. I see approaching +him, when this war is over, an opportunity far greater than anything +fate has yet placed in his way. The world will be shuddering at the +ghastliness of its recent experiences and asking if there is no way of +guarding against the possibility of such a catastrophe in the years +ahead. Among all the nations lately at war there will be but one +desire--namely, the insuring of the enjoyment of peace for the +generations to come. If that mood comes to exist, as it surely will, +among all the nations when this present conflict is over, there are two +men who, working together, may write their names indelibly on the +history of the world. President Wilson's uplifting vision of an +enduring peace by a mutually protective combination of nations is +regarded by many as impracticable even as an illusion. I do not +believe Lloyd George will regard it either as impracticable or as an +illusion. His spirit will glow at the thought of it. The magnitude of +the proposal will encourage him rather than check him. As to the +difficulties in the way, he will tackle them with a confident smile. +The tenacity and high-mindedness of President Wilson are qualities +which will especially appeal to him. He will be able to supplement +them with that ingenuity and practicalness which are an integral part +of his genius for getting things done. I can see these two men, +therefore, as collaborators in days not so very far ahead. In the +collaboration Lloyd George will probably find his culminating task. + + + + +APPENDIX + +MR. LLOYD GEORGE ON AMERICA AND THE EUROPEAN WAR + +On the anniversary of President Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1916, +Mr. Lloyd George sent a remarkable message to the American people +comparing the American Civil War with the European conflict. By the +courtesy of the New York _Times_ this message is presented here. + +A LINCOLN DAY MESSAGE + +I am very glad to respond to your request for a message for publication +on Lincoln Day. I am glad because to my mind Abraham Lincoln has +always been one of the very first of the world's statesmen, because I +believe that the battle which we have been fighting is at bottom the +same battle which your countrymen fought under Lincoln's leadership +more than fifty years ago, and most of all, perhaps, because I desire +to say how much I welcome the proof which the last few days have +afforded that the American people are coming to realize this, too. + +Lincoln's life was devoted to the cause of human freedom. From the day +when he first recognized what slavery meant he bent all his energies to +its eradication from American soil. Yet after years of patient effort +he was driven to realize that it was not a mere question of abolishing +slavery in the Southern States, but that bound up with it was a larger +issue: That unless the Union abolished slavery, slavery would break up +the Union. + +Faced by this alternative, he did not shrink, after every other method +had failed, from vindicating both Union and freedom by the terrible +instrument of war. Nor after the die for war had been cast did he +hesitate to call upon his countrymen to make sacrifice upon sacrifice, +to submit to limitation upon limitation of their personal freedom, +until, in his own words, there was a new birth of freedom in your land. + +Is there not a strange similarity between this battle, which we are +fighting here in Europe, and that which Lincoln fought? Has there not +grown up in this continent a new form of slavery, a militarist slavery, +which has not only been crushing out the freedom of the people under +its control, but which in recent years has also been moving toward +crushing out freedom and fraternity in all Europe as well? + +Is it not true that it is to the militarist system of government which +centers in Berlin that every open-minded man who is familiar with past +history would point as being the ultimate source of all the expansion +of armaments, of all the international unrest, and of the failure of +all movements toward co-operation and harmony among nations during the +last twenty years? + +We were reluctant, and many of us refused to believe that any sane +rulers would deliberately drench Europe in its own blood, so we did not +face the facts until it was almost too late. It was not until August, +1914, that it became clear to us, as it became clear to Lincoln in +1861, that the issue was not to be settled by pacific means, and that +either the machine which controlled the destinies of Germany would +destroy the liberty of Europe or the people of Europe must defeat its +purpose and its prestige by the supreme sacrifice of war. It was the +ultimatum to Serbia and the ruthless attack upon Belgium and France +which followed because the nations of Europe would not tolerate the +obliteration of the independence of a free people without conference +and by the sword, which revealed to us all the implacable nature of the +struggle which lay before us. + +It has been difficult for a nation separated from Europe by three +thousand miles of sea and without political connections with its +peoples, to appreciate fully what was at stake in the war. In your +Civil War many of our ancestors were blind. Lord Russell hinted at an +early peace. Even Gladstone declared "we have no faith in the +propagation of free institutions at the point of the sword." It was +left for John Bright, that man of all others who most loved peace and +hated war, to testify that when our statesmen "were hostile or coldly +neutral the British people clung to freedom with an unfaltering trust." +But I think that America now sees that it is human unity and freedom +which are again being fought for in this war. + +The American people under Lincoln fought not a war of conquest, but a +war of liberation. We to-day are fighting not a war of conquest, but a +war of liberation--a liberation not of ourselves alone, but of all the +world, from that body of barbarous doctrine and inhuman practice which +has estranged nations, has held back the unity and progress of the +world, and which has stood revealed in all its deadly iniquity in the +course of this war. + +In such wars for liberty there can be no compromise. They are either +won or lost. In your case it was freedom and unity or slavery and +separation, in our case military power, tyrannously used, will have +succeeded in tearing up treaties and trampling on the rights of others, +or liberty and public right will have prevailed. Therefore, we believe +that the war must be fought out to a finish, for on such an issue there +can be no such thing as a drawn war. + +In holding this conviction, we have been inspired and strengthened +beyond measure by the example and the words of your great President. +Once the conflict had been joined, he did not shrink from bloodshed. I +have often been struck at the growth of both tenderness and stern +determination in the face of Lincoln, as shown in his photographs, as +the war went on. + +Despite his abhorrence of all that was entailed, he persisted in it +because he knew that he was sparing life by losing it, that if he +agreed to compromise, the blood that had been shed on a hundred fields +would have been shed in vain, that the task of creating a united nation +of free men would only have to be undertaken at even greater cost at +some later day. It would, indeed, be impossible to state our faith +more clearly than Lincoln stated it himself at the end of 1864. + +"On careful consideration," he said, "of all the evidence it seems to +me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could +result in any good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the +Union, precisely what we will not and cannot give. His declarations to +this effect are explicit and oft repeated. He does not deceive us. He +affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves; . . . between him and us the +issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue which can +only be tried by war and decided by victory." + +That was the judgment of the greatest statesman of the nineteenth +century during the last great war for human liberty. It is the +judgment of this nation and of its fellow-nations overseas to-day. + +"Our armies," said Lincoln, "are ministers of good, not evil." So do +we believe. And through all the carnage and suffering and conflicting +motives of the Civil War, Lincoln held steadfastly to the belief that +it was the freedom of the people to govern themselves which was the +fundamental issue at stake. So do we to-day. For when the people of +central Europe accept the peace which is offered them by the Allies, +not only will the allied peoples be free, as they have never been free +before, but the German people, too, will find that in losing their +dream of an empire over others, they have found self-government for +themselves. + +D. LLOYD GEORGE. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lloyd George, by Frank Dilnot + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LLOYD GEORGE *** + +***** This file should be named 20805.txt or 20805.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/8/0/20805/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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. 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