Liberalism And Socialism.docx

1、Liberalism And SocialismLiberalism And SocialismMay 4, 1908. Kinnaird Hall, DundeeThis speech deserves particular attention for it was made during an important period of Churchills career and reflects his transition from concentration on foreign affairs to social problems. RRJThis is a great meeting

2、 - hear, hear - and it augurs well for our cause. Applause. I am very sorry that there is no more room in the hall, because I have seen outside a great many gentlemen - a Voice - Why did you not keep the women out? - who are electors, and who earnestly desired to be present, but I think the great ga

3、thering which is assembled here, which fills this spacious building, is a sign that the Liberal cause has behind it the driving power that is necessary for victory. Applause. And, gentlemen, this election is one of special and peculiar importance. We meet together to take a decision which will be ju

4、dged by the whole country.Applause. You will have many votes to cast in your lives, but I think it is no exaggeration to say that the vote which you will cast on Saturday will be probably the most important vote which as citizens of Dundee you will have to record. Hear, hear. Dont let it be wasted.

5、Dont let it be misapplied. Hear, hear. Let it go to support the good old cause and strengthen the hands of the Government now doing good work. Let it be a solid vote a vote which makes its effect felt, not only on the politics of the day but on the whole politics of this island in which we live for

6、the year or two years to come.A new Government has come into being under a Prime Minster who, like his predecessor whose loss we all profoundly deplore, and whose many virtues all parties have joined to celebrate - a new Prime Minister has come into power, tied to Scotland by strong and intimate bon

7、ds. Give him a fair chance. Hear, hear. Give the Government which he has brought into being the opportunity of handling the great machinery of State. Be assured that, if you do, they will employ it for the greatest good of the greatest number. I am well satisfied at what has taken place in the last

8、four or five days since I have been in Dundee. I see a great concentration of forces throughout the constituency. I see the opportunity of retrieving, and more than retrieving, the injury which has been done to the cause of progress and reform by elections in other parts of our land. Applause.Ah, bu

9、t, gentlemen, a very sad thing has happened; an awful thing has happened - a Voice - Ringing the bell - the Liberal party has gone in for Home Rule. Laughter. The Scotsman is shocked, the Times is speechless, and takes three columns to express its speechlessness in; the Spectator, that staid old wee

10、kly, has wobbled back to where it never should have wobbled from applause and laughter?the Ulster Unionists declare that the Government has forfeited all the confidence that they never had in it - laughter - and thousands of people who never under any circumstances voted Liberal before are saying th

11、at under no circumstances will they ever vote Liberal again. And I am supposed to be responsible for this revolution in our policy.Why, gentlemen, the statements I have made on the Irish question are the logical and inevitable conclusion of the resolution which was passed by the House of Commons, in

12、 which every member of the Government voted, which was carried by an enormous majority - more than 200 - a month or five weeks ago - a resolution which, after explaining the plain and lamentable evils which can be traced to the existing system of government in Ireland, affirmed that the remedy for t

13、hese evils would be found in a representative body with an Executive responsible to it, subject to The supreme authority of the Imperial Parliament Cheers. The Irish question at the present time occupies a vastly different position to what it did in the year 1886. Ever since 1880 the attention of Pa

14、rliament has been devoted constantly to Ireland, and the attention of Parliament, when devoted constantly to one object, is rarely fruitless. The 25 or 26 years that have passed have seen great changes in Ireland, and I think that time has largely vindicated the action which Mr. Gladstone took in 18

15、86. Cheers. We have seen a great scheme of local government, which Lord Salisbury said would be more disastrous than Home Rule itself, actually put into force. We have seen the land policy in Ireland, the scheme of land purchase which in the year 1886 did more to injure the Home Rule Bill than anyth

16、ing else - we have seen that policy actually carried, not to a complete conclusion, but carried into practical effect by a Unionist Administration.These are great events, and their consequences, I think, ought to encourage us to move forward - hear, hear not to lead us to move back. They have produc

17、ed results in Ireland which are good and beneficent results, and the Irish question no longer presents itself in the tragic guise of the early eighties. They have produced an effect on England too. All over our country people have seen Bills which they were told beforehand would be ruinous to the un

18、ity and integrity of the United Kingdom - Land Bills and Local Government Bills passed into law, and so far from the dire consequences which were apprehended from these measures, they have found - you here have found - that great good has resulted from that legislation. People are encouraged by what

19、 has taken place to exert themselves to make a step forward in the future, and I think if we need or look for any further encouragement we should find it in the great success, the great and undisputed triumph which under the mercy of Heaven has attended our policy in South Africa. Cheers. It has res

20、ulted in bringing into the circle of the British Empire a grand and martial race, which a foolish policy might easily have estranged for ever. Cheers.Ladies and gentlemen, the Irish polity finds its fellow nowhere in the world. It is a Government responsible neither to King nor people. It is not a d

21、emocratic Government, not an autocratic Government, nor even an oligarchical Government. It is a Government overridden by 41 administrative Boards whose functions overlap one another and sometimes conflict with one another. Some are fed with money from the Consolidated Fund, some are supplied by vot

22、e of the House of Commons, some are supplied from savings from the Irish Development grant. Some of these Boards are under the Viceroy, some under the Chief Secretary, some under Treasury control, and some are under no control at all. Laughter.You have an administration resulting from that system co

23、stly, inefficient, unhandy beyond all description. You have a mighty staff of officials and police; a people desperately poor; you have taxation which rises automatically with every increase in the expenditure of this vast and wealthy island. You have a population which dwindles year by year - terri

24、bly and tragically dwindles. Add to all this a loyalist caste. What an old man of the sea that is to get on the back of any country! - a class of people apart from the feelings of the mass of those in the land in which they live looking for their support, not to the people but to external force deri

25、ved from across the sea. You have in effect in Ireland at the present time almost exactly the same situation which would have grown up in South Africaif we had not had the wit and the nerve to prevent it by bold and daring treatment of the question. Hear, hear. Take the whole of this situation as I

26、have described it. Thrust it into the arena of British politics to be the centre of contending factions, thrust it into our turbulent arena here at home, and the panorama of Irish Government is complete.With these facts before us, upon the authority of men like Lord Dunraven, SirJoseph West Ridgeway

27、, Sir Anthony MacDonnell, Lord Dudley, and others who have served the Crown in Ireland - is it wonderful that we should refuse to turn our eyes away from the vision of that other Ireland, that Ireland free to control her own destiny in all that properly concerns herself; free to devote the native ge

28、nius of her people to the purposes of her own self-culture, the vision of that other Ireland which Mr. Gladstone had reserved as the culminating achievement of his long and glorious career? Cheers. Is it wonderful that we should refuse to turn our eyes away from that? No, I say that the desire and t

29、he aim of making a national settlement with Ireland on lines which would enable the people of that country to manage their own purely local affairs is not an aim that can be separated from the general march of the Liberal army. Cheers.If I come forward on your platform here at Dundee it is on the cl

30、ear understanding that I do not preclude myself from doing something to try to reconcile Ireland to England on a basis of freedom and justice. Cheers. I said just now that this was an important election. Yes, the effect upon His Majestys Government and upon the Liberal party for good or ill from thi

31、s election cannot fail to be great and far-reaching. There are strong forces against us. Do not underrate the growing strength of the Tory reaction now in progress in many of the constituencies in England. I say it earnestly to those who are members of the Labour party here today - do not underrate

32、the storm which is gathering over your heads as well as ours.Hear, hear, and cheers. But I am not afraid of the forces which are against us. Cheers. With your support we shall overwhelm them - with your support we shall beat them down. Ah, but we must have that support. - Cheers, and a voice - 2300.It is not the enemy in front that I fear, but the division which too often makes itself manifest in progressive ranks - it is that division, that dispersion of forces, that internecine struggle in the moments of great emergency, in the moments when the issue hangs in the balance