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http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=285 Feature Articles - Finest Hour 112 THE
PEOPLE'S RIGHTS:
OPPORTUNITY LOST?
What would have happened had
Churchill's Liberals succeeded
in their original plan for reform? ANDREW MacLAREN: Born in Glasgow in 1883, Andrew MacLaren was active in the Scottish Liberal Party and was working with the United Committee for the Taxation of Land Values in London when Churchill sent for copies of Henry George's works at the time of the great battle over the "People's Budget." He was in 1970 one of the few alive who could speak from personal and intimate knowledge of the events and personalities of that time. As Labour Member for the Burslem Division of Stoke-on-Trent, MacLaren was a fervent advocate of Land Values Taxation and Free Trade and -- to the consternation of many socialist colleagues -- fiercely opposing the Welfare State and nationalisation of industry as an alternative to dealing with the basic causes of poverty and injustice. , EDITOR'S
NOTE: In 1970, Jonathan Cape published a new edition of
Churchill's rare work, The People's
Rights (Woods A16). We have
recently come across a copy
containing an eight-page
publishers pamphlet we had
never seen before,
the contents of which we publish herewith. The author owned a first
edition he had bought new in 1910, possibly the copy Cape used for the
offprint. Mr. MacLaren (see biographic note) was Labour MP for Burslem
during 1922-45. His argument is akin to that of Malcolm Hill in Churchill:
His Radical Decade, reviewed in
Finest Hour 108 .
============ The republication of any Churchill work after sixty years is an event commanding widespread public interest. Such attention is owed the rich desert of The People's Rights, last published at the culmination of the election campaign of 1909/10, when the speeches from which Churchill compiled the book were delivered. Many a reader will find himself astonished that so vivid a portrayal of one of the great men of our time should have lain so long out of print. Yet modern readers will miss much of the value of the book if it is read only for the brilliant and sometimes surprising insight into this vital stage of Churchill's political development. For the principles and aspirations set out here are not those of the individual, but the life force of the great movement that reached its zenith in the Liberal Governments of Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman and Herbert Asquith that followed the landslide Liberal victory of 1906. If one dares to summarise the purpose and vision of Liberal leaders of that time, it was to bring in a society in which the poverty and social injustice of the previous century would be eradicated without diminishing the liberty and independence of the individual. The incentive would remain to develop his abilities to the full for the good of himself and of the community. In seeking and proclaiming the steps which were to be taken, Churchill and the other leaders of the radical wing of the Liberal Party encountered fierce opposition from powerful vested interests, even within their own party, and in particular from the House of Lords. The struggle with the Lords, following their rejection of the so-called "People's Budget" in 1909, led of course to the introduction of the Parliament Act. Churchill himself had crossed the floor of the House in 1904 on the Free Trade issue and his passionate advocacy of Free Trade found brilliant expression in the 1909 speeches. It was not long however before he became the equally fervent and conscientious exponent of other great Liberal causes, many of which are now little remembered. Apart from Free Trade, the great economic and social issues were taxation and the alleviation of poverty. The Liberals were concerned to remove the basic cause of the problem -- not just to mitigate its undesirable effects. It was the American economist Henry George who, towards the end of the 19th century, had examined the paradox of the age in his Progress and Poverty.His principles had a major impact, first upon the radicals of Scotland and Ireland, including Campbell Bannerman himself; and later upon the policy of the Liberal Party. Henry George propounded that whilst people have the right to possess what they produce, or receive in exchange for their work, there is no such right to private ownership of the elements upon which all depend -- air, water, sunshine and land. Indeed, George held the right of access to these basic elements as strong and equal as the right to life itself, and that if private ownership of basic elements is permitted, suppression and exploitation of one class by another is inevitable. The consequent injustice must become more acute as the community develops. Thus it became a major point of Liberal policy to shift taxation from production, and to raise taxation upon the value of land, on the basis that this value, as witnessed by the tremendously high prices even then demanded for commercial land, is created not by any individual but by the existence and work of the whole community. A natural source thus arises from which the community may meet its growing needs without discouraging production or inhibiting the growth of earnings. The justice and practicality of this proposition can rarely if ever have enjoyed a more brilliant advocate than Winston Churchill, and today's reader is left to wonder how different might be the present state of Britain had the forces of social change pursued these principles to their enactment. As it was, the great power and intellectual prowess of the Liberal Movement, which had commanded worldwide admiration for the breadth and nobility of its vision, was soon to be dissipated by war, internal feuding and the fear of Bolshevism. Under the cruel heel of war and unemployment, Britons came to value security more and independence less. The emphasis in social advance shifted to the massive provision of public benefits, and the increasing intervention of the State in almost every area of human activity. The two World Wars and the great depression between them severed, to a great extent, the line of liberal thought that had developed over the previous century. Of Churchill himself, one can only feel that he was fated to be the great war leader. Certainly, opposition to communism and later to the rise of European tyrannies dominated the remainder of his political life. It is perhaps ironic that a reason so often given for his dismissal in 1945 is that he was not capable of dealing with social problems, and thus was unfit to be a peacetime leader. The People's Rights tells a very different story and comes now not as a document of historic interest but as a challenge to politicians, indeed to the entire electorate, to consider again the causes of poverty and the basic issues of social and economic justice. Perhaps current disillusionment with politics springs from a sense that if justice in the community can only be achieved at the expense of individual liberty, the price -- especially in terms of ever-increasing taxation and bureaucracy -- is too high to pay. As a proposition that justice in the community and the freedom of the individual are complementary and that taxes may be raised without undermining either, The People's Rights comes as a major contribution to current political and economic thought. Indeed it deserves a place in the annals of Man's struggle for freedom and yearning for a society in which the genius of every person would be nurtured and the liberty of every person respected. The Churchill Centre | 1150 17th Street NW, Ste. 307 Washington, DC 20036 1-888-972-1874 info@winstonchurchill.org http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=468 THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS by Winston Churchill By John P. Nixon, Jr. Published in Finest Hour 56, Summer 1987 Churchill as Classical Liberal
Churchill's pre-World War I books tend to be overlooked by casual students of The Great Man. which is unfortunate as they are well written and present a great variety for the reader: four war histories, a novel, a biography, a travelogue, three speech compilations, and a political campaign statement, The People's Rights. The third and longest of the speech compilations, Liberalism and The Social Problem, was published on 26 November 1909. Less than a week later, Prime Minister Asquith dissolved Parliament following rejection of the Liberal Government's budget by the Conservative-dominated House of Lords. Churchill, a cabinet member, as President of the Board of Trade, immediately hit the campaign trail with a series of stirring speeches, given during the period 3-11 December 1909.1 1. See WSC - HIS COMPLETE
SPEECHES, VOL 2: edited by
Robert Rhodes James, Chelsea House, 1974. The speeches are identified
by dates: Dec. 3.4 (3 speeches), 6,7 (2 speeches), 8.9, and 11. Many
paragraphs are taken verbatim from the speeches and the book.
During or shortly after this brief span, the decision was made by Hodder & Stoughton to publish a volume by Churchill as soon as possible "as a guide for some and as an armoury for others in the general election campaign." Originally titled The People's Rights Defended, the book was eventually published in January 1910 (Churchill's preface is dated 29 December 1909) as The People's Rights. A companion volume written by David Lloyd George, The People's Budget. was published by Hodder & Stoughton somewhat earlier, as the advertisements in the first and only edition (until 1970) of Churchill's work states "Third Large Edition" for Lloyd George's book. Several other related volumes were published by Hodder & Stoughton during this period.2 2. A pamphlet written
by WSC
titled: "What a 10% Tax
on Imports Really Means" was advertised by Hodde' & Stoughton on
the inside cover of The People's Rights but has apparently not survived
(If actually published at all)
The People's Rights is a distillation of Churchill's speeches during the nine-day period. It follows a textbook or outline form: six chapters, each broken down into short paragraphs, headlined in bold face by a statement or question. This format is quite unlike his other writings, but is most effective in emphasizing his points. Although he most likely had this in mind, this format was probably used because of the alacrity required to complete the book and get it to the printer. A letter to Churchill by the chairman of H&S written 16 December indicates the printers had already received the text and had suggested deletions of repeated matter! Churchill was obviously waiving his usual custom of meticulously proofreading and rewriting where necessary. The book opens with a rather lengthy criticism of the House of Lords. and continues with a plea for a balanced budget (back when such an idea was fashionable). The role of Free Trade in the scheme of things is examined. along with a case for graduated income taxes, luxury taxes, and surtaxes on unearned income. Churchill then advocates the need for improving the plight of the working classes. He shows a paternalistic but genuine concern here, and proposes along with the taxes mentioned above "a complete ladder...of various insurance schemes... along which the whole body of people may move with a certain measure of security and safety against hazards and misfortunes." For all his liberal beliefs, however, Churchill is quite clear on maintaining control under the existing parliamentary system, other than decreasing the influence of the House of Lords. Socialism is mentioned only once, and abruptly dismissed. Trade unions and the labour movement are not mentioned at all -- clearly he felt that a government-operated system of "labour exchanges" along with the liberal programs being advocated would adequately improve the lot of the masses without relinquishing control of the government. The result of the political campaign was a narrow victory for the Liberals. The budget was issued by the House of Commons in April 1910 and assented to by the House of Lords. A watered down Parliament Bill, designed to reduce the power of the House of Lords, was not enacted for another year. The National Insurance Act was finally passed in December 1911 but by that time Churchill was preoccupied with other matters - he had passed from President of the Board of Trade to Home Secretary to first Lord of the Admiralty. The liberal bills were passed primarily through the efforts of Lloyd George. but despite these victories the seeds of discontent had been sown. The long descent of the Liberal party coupled with the rise of Labour had begun. The People's Rights remains as evidence of Churchill's contribution in this great turning point in Britain's history. Original copies of the 1910 edition are scarce, expensive, and very fragile as all but a handful of the surviving copies exist in lightweight wrappers and pulp paper. The original printing was in unknown quantities, certainly rather small. The next editions were not published until 1970 (by Cape and Taplinger), and are recommended they avoid the above difficulties, and contain an excellent contemporary introduction by Cameron Hazlehurst. Unfortunately this edition is also out of print but copies can be obtained from Churchillbooks and other fine dealers on occasion. The Churchill Centre | 1150 17th Street NW, Ste. 307 Washington, DC 20036 1-888-972-1874 info@winstonchurchill.org |
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