gross, and, I sometimes fear, increasing evil of casual labour. We
talk a great deal about the unemployed, but the evil of the
_under-employed_ is the tap-root of unemployment. There is a tendency
in many trades, almost in all trades, to have a fringe of casual
labour on hand, available as a surplus whenever there is a boom, flung
back into the pool whenever there is a slump. Employers and foremen in
many trades are drawn consciously or unconsciously to distribute their
work among a larger number of men than they regularly require, because
this obviously increases their bargaining power with them, and
supplies a convenient reserve for periods of brisk business activity.
And what I desire to impress upon you, and through you upon this
country, is that the casual unskilled labourer who is habitually
under-employed, who is lucky to get three, or at the outside four,
days' work in the week, who may often be out of a job for three or
four weeks at a time, who in bad times goes under altogether, and who
in good times has no hope of security and no incentive to thrift,
whose whole life and the lives of his wife and children are embarked
in a sort of blind, desperate, fatalistic gamble with circumstances
beyond his comprehension or control, that this poor man, this terrible
and pathetic figure, is not as a class the result of accident or
chance, is not casual because he wishes to be casual, is not casual as
the consequence of some temporary disturbance soon put right. No; the
casual labourer is here because he is wanted here. He is here in
answer to a perfectly well-defined demand. He is here as the result of
economic causes which have been too long unregulated. He is not the
natural product, he is an article manufactured, called into being, to
suit the requirements, in the Prime Minister's telling phrase, of all
industries at particular times and of particular industries at all
times.
I suppose no Department has more means of learning about these things
than the Board of Trade, which is in friendly touch at every stage all
over the country both with capital and labour. I publish that fact
deliberately. I invite you to consider it, I want it to soak in. It
appears to me that measures to check the growth and diminish the
quantity of casual labour must be an essential part of any thorough or
scientific attempt to deal with unemployment, and I would not proclaim
this evil to you without having reason to believe that practicable
means exist by which it can be greatly diminished.
If the first vicious condition which I have mentioned to you is lack
of industrial organisation, if the second is the evil of casual
labour, there is a third not less important. I mean the present
conditions of boy labour. The whole underside of the labour market is
deranged by the competition of boys or young persons who do men's work
for boys' wages, and are turned off so soon as they demand men's wages
for themselves. That is the evil so far as it affects the men; but how
does it affect the boys, the youth of our country, the heirs of all
our exertion, the inheritors of that long treasure of history and
romance, of science and knowledge--aye, of national glory, for which
so many valiant generations have fought and toiled--the youth of
Britain, how are we treating them in the twentieth century of the
Christian era? Are they not being exploited? Are they not being
demoralised? Are they not being thrown away?
Whereas the youth of the wealthier class is all kept under strict
discipline until eighteen or nineteen, the mass of the nation runs
wild after fourteen years of age. No doubt at first employment is easy
to obtain. There is a wide and varied field; there are a hundred odd
jobs for a lad; but almost every form of employment now open to young
persons affords them no opening, is of no use to them whatever when
they are grown up, and in a great number of cases the life which they
lead is demoralising and harmful. And what is the consequence? The
consequence may be measured by this grim fact, that out of the
unemployed applying for help under the Unemployed Workmen Act, no less
than twenty-eight per cent. are between twenty and thirty years of
age, that is to say, men in the first flush of their strength and
manhood already hopelessly adrift on the dark and tumultuous ocean of
life. Upon this subject, I say to you deliberately that no boy or girl
ought to be treated merely as cheap labour, that up to eighteen years
of age every boy and girl in this country should, as in the old days
of apprenticeship, be learning a trade as well as earning a living.
All attempts to deal with these and similar evils involve the
expenditure of money. It is no use abusing capitalists and rich
people. They are neither worse nor better than any one else. They
function quite naturally under the conditions in which they find
themselves. When the conditions are vicious, the consequence will be
evil; when the conditions are reformed, the evil will be abated. Nor
do I think the wealthy people of Great Britain would be ungenerous or
unwilling to respond to the plain need of this nation for a more
complete or elaborate social organisation. They would have a natural
objection to having public money wasted or spent on keeping in
artificial ease an ever-growing class of wastrels and ne'er-do-weels.
No doubt there would also be a selfish element who would sullenly
resist anything which touched their pocket. But I believe that if
large schemes, properly prepared and scientifically conceived for
dealing with the evils I have mentioned were presented, and if it
could be shown that our national life would be placed upon a far more
stable and secure foundation, I believe that there would be thousands
of rich people who would cheerfully make the necessary sacrifices. At
any rate, we shall see.
The year that lies before us must be a year of important finance. No
doubt that finance will be a subject of fierce and protracted
discussion; but I shall certainly not exclude from my mind, in
weighing the chances of social reform, that strong element of
patriotism which is to be found among the more fortunate of our
fellow-countrymen, and which has honourably distinguished them from
the rich people of other countries I could name.
I have been dealing with three, and only three, of the evil causes
which principally affect labour conditions in Great Britain at the
present time. Do not forget, however, as the Prime Minister has
reminded us, how intimate is the co-relation of all social reforms,
how vital it is to national health and security that we should
maintain an adequate and independent population upon the land, and how
unsatisfactory, in Scotland, at any rate, are the present conditions
for small holdings. Do not forget, either, how fatal to the social,
moral, and political progress of British democracy is the curse of
intemperance. There is not a man or woman who lifts a voice and exerts
an influence in support either of land or of temperance reform, who
will not be doing something not only to alleviate the sufferings of
the poor, but to stimulate the healthy advance of British prosperity.
But see how vast is the range of this question of unemployment with
which we are confronted. See now how intricate are its details and
its perplexities; how foolish it would be to legislate in panic or
haste; how vain it would be to trust to formulas and prejudices; how
earnest must be the study; how patient and laborious the preparation;
how scientific the spirit, how valiant the action, if that great and
hideous evil of insecurity by which our industrial population are
harassed is to be effectually diminished in our national life. See
now, also, what sort of politicians those are, whichever extreme of
politics they may belong to, who tell you that they have an easy,
simple, and unfailing remedy for such an evil. What sort of
unscrupulous and reckless adventurers they are who tell you that
tariff reform, that a trumpery ten per cent. tariff on foreign
manufactures, and a tax on wheat would enable them to provide "work
for all." I was very glad to see that Mr. Balfour frankly and honestly
dissociated himself, the other night at Dumfries, from the impudent
political cheap-jacks who are touting the country on behalf of the
Tory Party, by boldly declaring that tariff reform, or "fiscal
reform," as he prefers to call it, would be no remedy for unemployment
or trade oscillations.
Now that Mr. Balfour has made that admission, for which we thank him,
and for which we respect him, I will make one in my turn. If tariff
reform or protection, or fiscal reform, or whatever you choose to call
it, is no remedy for unemployment--and it is pretty clear from the
experience of other countries who have adopted it on a large scale
that it is not--neither is free trade by itself a remedy for
unemployment. The evil lies deeper, the causes are more complex than
any within the reach of import duties or of no import duties, and its
treatment requires special measures of a social, not less than of an
economic character which are going to carry us into altogether new and
untrodden fields in British politics.
I agree most whole-heartedly with those who say that in attempting to
relieve distress or to regulate the general levels of employment, we
must be most careful not to facilitate the very disorganisation of
industry which causes distress. But I do not agree with those who say
that every man must look after himself, and that the intervention by
the State in such matters as I have referred to will be fatal to his
self-reliance, his foresight, and his thrift. We are told that our
non-contributory scheme of old-age pensions, for instance, will be
fatal to thrift, and we are warned that the great mass of the working
classes will be discouraged thereby from making any effective
provision for their old age. But what effective provision have they
made against old age in the past? If terror be an incentive to thrift,
surely the penalties of the system which we have abandoned ought to
have stimulated thrift as much as anything could have been stimulated
in this world. The mass of the labouring poor have known that unless
they made provision for their old age betimes they would perish
miserably in the workhouse. Yet they have made no provision; and when
I am told that the institution of old-age pensions will prevent the
working classes from making provision for their old age, I say that
cannot be, for they have never been able to make such provision. And I
believe our scheme, so far from preventing thrift, will encourage it
to an extent never before known.
It is a great mistake to suppose that thrift is caused only by fear;
it springs from hope as well as from fear; where there is no hope, be
sure there will be no thrift. No one supposes that five shillings a
week is a satisfactory provision for old age. No one supposes that
seventy is the earliest period in a man's life when his infirmities
may overwhelm him. We have not pretended to carry the toiler on to dry
land; it is beyond our power. What we have done is to strap a lifebelt
around him, whose buoyancy, aiding his own strenuous exertions, ought
to enable him to reach the shore.
And now I say to you Liberals of Scotland and Dundee two
words--"Diligence and Daring." Let that be your motto for the year
that is to come. "Few," it is written, "and evil are the days of man."
Soon, very soon, our brief lives will be lived. Soon, very soon, we
and our affairs will have passed away. Uncounted generations will
trample heedlessly upon our tombs. What is the use of living, if it be
not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better
place for those who will live in it after we are gone? How else can we
put ourselves in harmonious relation with the great verities and
consolations of the infinite and the eternal? And I avow my faith that
we are marching towards better days. Humanity will not be cast down.
We are going on--swinging bravely forward along the grand high
road--and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the
sun.
THE SOCIAL FIELD
BIRMINGHAM, _January 13, 1909_[13]
(From _The Times_, by permission.)
I am very glad to come here to-night to wish good luck in the New Year
to the Liberals of Birmingham. Good luck is founded on good pluck, and
that is what I think you will not fail in. Birmingham Liberals have
for twenty years been over-weighted by the influence of remarkable men
and by the peculiar turn of events. This great city, which used to be
the home of militant Radicalism, which in former days supplied with
driving power the cause of natural representation against hereditary
privilege, has been captured by the foe. The banner of the House of
Lords has been flung out over the sons and grandsons of the men who
shook all England in the struggle for the great Reform Bill; and while
old injustice has but been replaced by new, while the miseries and the
privations of the poor continue in your streets, while the
differences between class and class have been even aggravated in the
passage of years, Birmingham is held by the enemy and bound to
retrogression in its crudest form.
But this is no time for despondency. The Liberal Party must not allow
itself to be overawed by the hostile Press which is ranged against it.
Boldly and earnestly occupied, the platform will always beat the
Press. Still less should we allow ourselves to be perturbed by the
fortuitous and sporadic results of by-electoral warfare. I suppose I
have fought as many by-elections as most people, and I know that all
the advantages lie with the attacking force. The contests are
complicated by personal and local influences. The discussions turn
upon the incidents of current legislation. There are always grievances
to be urged against the Government of the day. After a great victory,
all parties, and particularly the Liberals, are prone to a slackening
of effort and organisation; after a great defeat all parties, and
especially the Tories, are spurred to supreme exertions.
These factors are common to all by-elections, under all Governments;
but never, I venture to say, has it been more important to an
Opposition to gain by-electoral successes than during the present
Parliament. It is their only possible line of activity. In the House
of Commons they scarcely show their noses. In divisions they are
absent; in debate--well, I do not think we need say much about that;
and it is only by a combination of by-electoral incidents properly
advertised by the Party Press on the one hand, and the House of Lords'
manipulation upon the other, that the Conservative Party are able to
keep their heads above water. And when I speak of the importance to
the Opposition of by-elections, let me also remind you that never
before have by-electoral victories been so important, not only to a
great Party, but to a great trade.
Therefore, while I am far from saying that we should be content with
recent manifestations of the opinion of the electorate, while I do not
at all deny that they involve a sensible reaction of feeling of an
unfavourable character, and while I urge the most strenuous exertions
upon all concerned in party organisation, I assert that there is no
reason, as the history of this country abundantly shows, why a general
election, at a well-chosen moment, and upon some clear, broad, simple
issue, should not retrieve and restore the whole situation.
There could be no question of a Government, hitherto undisturbed by
internal disagreement and consistently supported in the House of
Commons by a large, united, and intact majority, being deflected one
hair's breadth from its course by the results of by-elections. We have
our work to do, and while we have the power to carry it forward, we
have no right, even if we had the inclination, to leave it
uncompleted. Certainly we shall not be so foolish, or play so false to
those who have supported us, as to fight on any ground but that of our
own choosing, or at any time but that most advantageous to the general
interest of the Progressive cause.
The circumstances of the period are peculiar. The powers of the House
of Lords to impede, and by impeding to discredit, the House of Commons
are strangely bestowed, strangely limited, and still more strangely
exercised. There are little things which they can maul; there are big
things they cannot touch; there are Bills which they pass, although
they believe them to be wrong; there are Bills which they reject,
although they know them to be right. The House of Lords can prevent
the trams running over Westminster Bridge; but it cannot prevent a
declaration of war. It can reject a Bill prohibiting foreign workmen
being brought in to break a British strike; it cannot amend a Bill to
give old-age pensions to 600,000 people. It can thwart a Government in
the minute details of its legislation; it cannot touch the whole vast
business of finance. It can prevent the abolition of the plural voter;
but it could not prevent the abolition of the police. It can refuse a
Constitution to Ireland, but not, luckily, to Africa.
Lord Lansdowne, in his leadership of the House of Lords during the
present Parliament, has put forward claims on its behalf far more
important and crude than ever were made by the late Lord Salisbury. No
Tory leader in modern times has ever taken so high a view of its
rights, and at the same time no one has shown a more modest conception
of its duties. In destroying the Education Bill of 1906 the House of
Lords asserted its right to resist the opinion of a majority of members
of the House of Commons, fresh from election, upon a subject which had
been one of the most prominent issues of the election. In rejecting
the Licensing Bill of 1908 they have paraded their utter unconcern for
the moral welfare of the mass of their fellow-countrymen.
There is one feature in the guidance of the House of Lords by Lord
Lansdowne which should specially be noticed, and that is the air of
solemn humbug with which this ex-Whig is always at pains to invest its
proceedings. The Nonconformist child is forced into the Church school
in single-school areas in the name of parents' rights and religious
equality. The Licensing Bill is rejected in the highest interests of
temperance. Professing to be a bulwark of the commercial classes
against Radical and Socialistic legislation, the House of Lords passes
an Old-Age Pensions Bill, which it asserts will be fatal alike to
public finance and public thrift, a Mines Eight Hours Bill, which it
is convinced will cripple British industry, and a Trades Disputes
Bill, which it loudly declared tyrannous and immoral. Posing as a
Chamber of review remote from popular passion, far from the swaying
influences of the electorate, it nevertheless exhibits a taste for
cheap electioneering, a subserviency to caucus direction, and a party
spirit upon a level with many of the least reputable elective
Chambers in the world; and beneath the imposing mask of an assembly of
notables backed by the prescription and traditions of centuries we
discern the leer of the artful dodger, who has got the straight tip
from the party agent.
It is not possible for reasonable men to defend such a system or such
an institution. Counter-checks upon a democratic Assembly there may
be, perhaps there should be. But those counter-checks should be in the
nature of delay, and not in the nature of arrest; they should operate
evenly and equally against both political parties, and not against
only one of them; and above all they should be counter-checks
conceived and employed in the national interest and not in a partisan
interest. These abuses and absurdities have now reached a point when
it is certain that reform, effective and far-reaching, must be the
necessary issue at a general election; and, whatever may be the result
of that election, be sure of this, that no Liberal Government will at
any future time assume office without securing guarantees that that
reform shall be carried out.
There is, however, one reason which would justify a Government,
circumstanced and supported as we are, in abandoning prematurely the
trust confided to us by the country. When a Government is impotent,
when it is destitute of ideas and devoid of the power to give effect
to them, when it is brought to a complete arrest upon the vital and
essential lines of its policy, then I entirely agree that the sooner
it divests itself of responsibilities which it cannot discharge, the
better for the country it governs and the Party it represents. No one
who looks back over the three busy years of legislation which have
just been completed can find any grounds for such a view of our
position; and although we have sustained checks and vexations from
circumstances beyond our control which have prevented us settling, as
we otherwise would have done, the problems of licensing and of
education, no lover of progress who compares the Statute-book as it
stands to-day with its state in 1905, need feel that he has laboured
in vain.
No one can say that we have been powerless in the past. The trade
unionist as he surveys the progress of his organisation, the miner as
the cage brings him to the surface of the ground, the aged pensioner
when he visits the post office with his cheque-book, the Irish
Catholic whose son sees the ranges of a University career thrown
open, the child who is protected in his home and in the street, the
peasant who desires to acquire a share of the soil he tills, the
youthful offender in the prison, the citizen as he takes his seat on
the county bench, the servant who is injured in domestic service, all
give the lie to that--all can bear witness to the workings of a
tireless social and humanitarian activity, which, directed by
knowledge and backed by power, tends steadily to make our country a
better place for the many, without at the same time making it a bad
place for the few.
But, if we have been powerful in the past, shall we then be powerless
in the future? Let the year that has now opened make its answer to
that. We shall see before many months are passed whether his Majesty's
Government, and the House of Commons, by which it is supported, do not
still possess effective means to carry out their policy, not only upon
those important political issues in which we have been for the time
being thwarted, but also in that still wider and, in my opinion, more
important field of social organisation into which, under the
leadership of the Prime Minister, we shall now proceed to advance.
I do not, of course, ignore the fact that the House of Lords has the
power, though not the constitutional right, to bring the government of
the country to a standstill by rejecting the provision which the
Commons make for the financial service of the year. That is a matter
which does not rest with us, it rests with them. If they want a speedy
dissolution, they know where to find one. If they really believe, as
they so loudly proclaim, that the country will hail them as its
saviours, they can put it to the proof. If they are ambitious to play
for stakes as high as any Second Chamber has ever risked, we shall not
be wanting. And, for my part, I should be quite content to see the
battle joined as speedily as possible upon the plain, simple issue of
aristocratic rule against representative government, between the
reversion to protection and the maintenance of free trade, between a
tax on bread and a tax on--well, never mind. And if they do not
choose, or do not dare to use the powers they most injuriously
possess, if fear, I say, or tactics, or prudence, or some lingering
sense of constitutional decency, restrains them, then for Heaven's
sake let us hear no more of these taunts, that we, the Liberal Party,
are afraid to go to the country, that we do not possess its
confidence, and that we are impotent to give effect to the essential
purposes of our policy.