The Past and Present Society

Lloyd George and the Labour Movement Author(s): W. S. Adams Reviewed work(s): Source: Past & Present, No. 3 (Feb., 1953), pp. 55-64 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/650036 . Accessed: 22/12/2011 12:10
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Oxford University Press and The Past and Present Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Past & Present.

http://www.jstor.org

55

LloydGeorge and theLabour Movement

THE QUESTIONS ASREDLARGELY DETERMINE THE HISTORYAND BIOGRAPHY

that becomes current. It is thereforeimportant,when the first assessment of a significant figureor eventis being made, that care shouldbe takenso to formulate the questions as to elicitthe deepest and most completerelevance. That the time has now cometo makeat leastan interimjudgment on Lloyd Georgerequiresno argumentbeyondthe fact that it is 30 yearssince he fell from powerand nearly50 since he entereda Cabinet for the firsttime. But whatarethe questions whichshould be asked? The apparently supremequestion,on which the I9I8 General Election was fought: " Was he ' the man who won the war'?" is too restrictedfor a Minister,whose terms of office comprised twelveyearof peaceandonlyfourof war. In foreign policyhe wasno initiator: it is internally that his sigrlificance is to be sought. Did he then destroy the Liberal Party or permit its final achievement ? To the historian of thatParty the question is central, andthe bitterness of Liberaldivisionssince I9I6 has causedit to loom large,but it is still too limitedfor a completeassessment of the man. The decline of the LiberalPartyis a greaterphenomenon than can be explained by the personal rivalries of individuals, however important they may havebeen in precipitating its finalphases. Thereis surelya strong prima facie case for consideringthat the deepest significance of Lloyd Georgeis to be foundin his relations with the Labourmovement, in how he viewed and reacted to this new historical phenomenon, the rise and influenceof the organised workingclass in the conditions of a parliamentary democracy. LloydGeorge's entryintothe Cabinet coincided withthe emergence of an independent Labourpartyin Parliament, basedon the Trade Unions. His socialreforms wereconcerned with the risingworking class. He was personallyengaged,to an extent never previously seen in a minister, in negotiations in connection with tradedisputes. He was in officeduringthe GreatUnrestof I9IO-I9I4, when some havebelievedthat the countrywas nearto socialrevolution,l during the labourdisputesof the war years,which chroniclers, with their eyes on the battleSelds,have been inclinedto underesiimate, and duringthe vast strugglesof the immediatepost-warperiod. For all these reasons his relationsto the Labour movementseem of cardinal importance, and these notes will be chieflyconcerned with them

56

PAST AND PRESENT

At his first parliamentary election (I890), he informed an enthusiastic audiencethat " the day of the cottage-bred man has at last dawned."2 All his life he preserved an admiration for Lincoln,3 whosecareerfromlog cabinto WhiteHouseseemsto havebeen an important personal inspiration. But how far was he, in fact, a man of the people? He was born the son of a schoolmaster of farming stockand when his fatherdied, beforeLloyd Georgewas two years old, his motherarranged to bringhim up in the houseof his uncle, Richard Lloydof Llanystymdwy, a smallvillagein Caernarvonshire. The remarkable qualities of this uncle are well known. Besideshis daily workhe was a preacher for a Baptistgroup, The Disciples of Christ. He possesseda strong character, a fund of perseverance, a reverence for knowledge, a faith in God and in Liberalism and a confidence in the valueof disputatiousness.He is oftendescribed as a cobbler, but in fact was a master shoemaker, employingfrom 2-54 men in his workshop, not rich, but certainlynot poor in any comparative sense. The accounts of occasionalshort commons given by the later Prime Ministerare not very convincingto any working-class household.8 The social stratificationof Llanystymdwypossessed certain peculiarities. It wasdeeplydividedinto the two mainsectionsof the English-speaking gentry (with its ties to the Churchof England) and the mass of the Welsh-speaking population. In this latter, which was composedof " artisans,tradesmen,small farmersand farmworkers and the familiesof seamen,"6 the Georgeswere near the top of the social scale7in a society which was only gradually crystailizing into class distinctions:by his marriageto Margaret Owen,Lloyd Georgewas raisedto the summitso far as the Welshspeakingsection was concerned.8 But over againsthim was ffie ' English' landed gentry, from whom he felt with his fellowcountrymen the realitiesof class and sectarianoppression.9 His hostilityto England wouldfade,but the landlord as the enemywould remainfirmlyfixed in the ' myth' from wh;ich he drew emotional sustenance. It was very differentwith the industrialemployer, oppression from whom was the majorpatternin the minds of the majorityof the Britishpeople and as a protestagainstwhich the LabourMovementhad been born. Of the urbanworkerhe had no direct experience. His reading,mostly narrative historiesand excitingnovels,lowouldbe of no aid in teachinghim to understand theirproblems fromtheirpoint of view. To meetthese he cameto oice with only two pieces of theoretical equipment: a " sympathy for the under-dog,"in which some have thoughtto find the one flickering consistencyin his career,lland the Joseph Chamberlain policyof " Ransom "; i.e. the beliefthat revolution must be headed off by iimelysocialreform.

COMMUNICATIONS

57

This " sympathy for the under-dog" reflected his youthful experience in Llanystymdwy. It would rangehim with the Boers in I899 and with Belgiumin I9I4.12 After a Government-Labour conference in I9I2 he told C. F. G. Masterman: " There were the employers on the one hand,plump,full-fed men, well-dressed men who had neverknownwhatit wasto go shortin theirlives. On the other side were the men, great gaunt fellows, pale with working underground, their faces all torn with anxiety and hard work," and he added:" I knowwhichside I am on when I see that sort of thing.''l3 Of the realityof the feelingthereis no reasonto doubt, but the extentto whichit affectedhis actionis less simplyassessed. As the yearspassedwe hearmoreof the high valuehe placedon the businessexecutivethanof his griefat working classdistress.l l The BoerWarwas to remainthe one sympathetic gestureto a peoplein conflict with British Imperial power. With his other Liberal colleagues he accepted without question Grey's expediency at Denshawai.l5 His post-warIrish policy was notorious. It has not suiciently been noted that while he rose to politicalsignificance as the opponentof Chamberlain, the ' lost leader' of Radicalism, he in fact trod the same toad, gripped by the same forces. As early as I908 Count Metternichwas writing to his government: " As he thinksimperially he is also respectedby the Unionists.''l6 Lhlore andmorehe cameto see allquestions in termsof national power, irrespective of howthatpowerwasbasedandproduced. The influence of Chamberlain was the earliestand most formative in his politicaleducation,though he was never a Republican,as Chamberlain had been. In I884 he wrote:" Mr. Chamberlain is unquestionably the futureleaderof the people . . . He is a Radical and doesn'tcarewho knowsit, as long as the peopledo.''l' When Chamberlain left Gladstone in I886, Lloyd Georgehesitatedl8 and then, reachinghis decision,pushedforwardas Chamberlain's most consistent and vehementopponent. But just as he was latermoved by the same Imperial considerations, so he took overfromthe early Chamberlain his former Radicalpolicy. The Limehousespeech (I909) and its corollariesare but a gloss on the doctrineof " Ransom.''l9 It is, however,worthnotingan important difference betweenthe two Radicals. Chamberlain enteredpolitics with the aid of his wealth,his businessconnections and his Birmingham base (somethingfar more than a safe seat): Lloyd George was the professional politiciantout courl, with nothing to assist his rise to powerexcepthis tongueand his politicalsense, whichincludedat a very earlyperiodthe use of the press.20 It was not a rapidrise. The long coniinuousterm of officeand the long periodof lateropposition havetendedto concealthis. He was 26 beforehe enteredParliament, and when in I905 he became

58

PAST AND PRESENT

a Minister(like Chamberlain withouthavingpreviouslyheld junior office)he was42. It wasat this mature age,in the ' firstmiddleclass cabinet'21 that he proceeded to makehis markon the historyof the Briiish people. The Government majority of I906 wasindependent of the ' Irish,' but, as the defeatedBalfourexultantlynoted, the emergence of an independent Labourgroupat Westminster wouldmeanthe ultimate disappearance of the LiberalParty,whichdepended on the workingclassvote for defeating the Conservatives.22 It was true that nearly all the Labour membersowed their election to local pacts with LiberalAssociations, but the importance of the new party lay in two factors,one persistentand the other immediate. The Labour Partyin the Houseof Commons wouldbe a magnetfor the workingclass vote; the particular circumstances of the Liberalavalanche at the polls meantthat any furtheradvancein Labourrepresentaiion could only be at the expense of Liberal seats. A fir.al attempt thereforewas made by the LiberalParty managers to attractthe Labour members into a Lib.-Lab. association,23 whilethe presence of JohnBurnsin the Cabinet was intendedto proveusefulin retaining working-classsupport for the Liberal Party. But Burns, the vainglorious heroof the I889 Dock Strike,had lost his hold on the working-class as he moved into the Liberalorbit, and pleasedno one but himselfand the Civil Servants of his ministry, whoseviews he so faithfullyrepresented. From him would come no aid to the Government in the diEcult problemof Liberal-Labour relations. LloydGeorge's reputation hadbeenmadein the Liberal Partyby his workagainstBalfour's Education Act, andin the LabourMovement by his courageousand unqualifiedoppostionto the Boer War.24 It washe who possessed the qualities necessary to holdworking-class supportby the class eloquencewith which he recommended social reforms on the Bismarckpattern, while he pushed the Liberal Government forward to its legislativeachievement. Liberal-Labour diEculties began early. In March I906, Campbell-Bannerman avertedan irrevocable breachonly by intervening on the floor of the House of Commonsagainstthe tTrades Disputes Bill of his own Law Officers. In May bad feeling was caused by the omission of any Labour representaiives from the Committeeon the Housing of the Working Classes. In July, Cockermouth waslost to the Liberals by the intervention of a Labour candidate, and in the followingsummerPete Curran,with official Laboursupport,and VictorGraysonwithoutit, won Liberalseats. In replythe Master of Elibank hadno policyexceptpetulant oratory.25 It wasLloydGeorge whofoundthe onlyeffective answer. The principal statement of his policyis to be foundin his speech at Cardiff,OctoberII, I906. His objectwas to persuade his own

COMMUNICATIONS

partyto go forwardon the path of social reformand to persuade 59 Labourto avoid " Socialism,"to work side by side with him for and he wasreasonable objectives. To Labour limitedandrespectable seduciive: " With ordinarycommonsensethere ought to be no bade them . . . Commonsense or misunderstanding unpleasantness get alongtogetheras far as they could today . . . They wantedits (the Labour Party's)assistanceto give directionto the policy of to its attack." He coupled andto givenerveandboldness Liberalism of the need to moderatepolicies:" No this wooingwith a warning party could ever hope of success in this country which did not of at least a largeportionof this powerfulmiddle win the confidence class." To his own party he spoke more harshly. Only " if a tacklethe landlordsand the brewersand the LiberalGovernment control peers . . . and try to deliverthe nationfromthe pernicious Labour " wouldthe Independent of monopolists of this confederacy Party call in rain upon the working men of Britainto desert which grouping, Liberalism." It wasa boldbid for a centrepolitical classvote and retainenoughof would harnessmuch of the working middleclasssupportto outweighthe Conservatives. It is a sign of Lloyd George'smaturepoliticalsense that he did not over-value the majorityof I906, but based his estimateof needs on a sober thata he recognised of socialforces. Perhaps of the balance ana-lysis would not partyof the Liberals'social composition26 2arliamentary support without special efforts. findit easyto retain working-class this is not the place to makea On the social reformprogramme brain: detailedjudgment. It was not the productof Lloyd George's systematic detailed thought was never his characteristic.The of the WelfareState are due to others. There is, preconceptions however,much truth in the precise, consideredopinion of Tom Jones:" In effect what he did was to spike the Socialistguns with social measuresderivedfrom the Liberal essentiallyConservative arsenal."27At the time the reformslookedimmense,partlybecause reformhad been so small in the last twenty years and even more becauseof the demagogicoratoryof Lloyd George,which one is sometimesinclinedto feel increasedin violenceand revolutionary to the benefitsbestowed. in inverseproportion phraseology in Lloyd George'scareer. In the I9I0 marksa turning-point lost heavily,in spite of the electionof that yearthe Liberals January social reform record and the formidablerallying-cry of Peers vs. People. The losses convincedhim that his attemptto hold the vote for the LiberalPartyhad failed. Withina few working-class openness for a Liberalmonths he was strivingwith remarkable of the essenceof whichwasto be a settlement coalition, Conservative basis problemsby the two partieson a give-and-take outstanding in the interestsof nationalsecurity.28 Fromthat moment,in spite

60

PAST AND PRESENT

of the resumption of partywarfare afterthe failureof the attempt, LloydGeorge ceased to be a Radical, ashadChamberlain before him. But the Labourproblemwas not only electoral. The emergence of largescaleconcerns andassociations of employers on the one hand, and of largelysupportedand closely organisedTrade Unions on the other, gave a differentcharacter to trade disputes. They now morcandmorethreatened to dislocate the life of the wholecommunity and to affectnationalsecurity. The Government intervened to an increasing extentin theseconflicts andto LloydGeorge,as PresideIlt of the Board of rfradefrom t905-8, (and subsequently in other offic?:s, bccause of his record of successfulsettlement)it fell to rcprosent the Governmcnt in a number of important negotiations. l hough the pattern of State interventionin Labour disputes had becn lightlysketchedby reformers and Fabiansfrom the early 1890'S-Rosebery's action in the Miners' dispute of I893 had establishedan importantprecedent it fell to Lloyd George to {illin its details. Intervention by i outsiders ' in Labourdisputes was no novelty. Cardinal Manning's activitiesin the LondondocXc strike of ISSgwere a prominent example. But when the Governmcnt intervenesa specialfactor is interjected, of the utmostimportance. For when the Government negotiatesit has at its ultimate disposalthe coercivepowerof the State. Thus in I9II the Liberal Governmcnt consideredthe use of troops to break the London Dock strike;it considered the use of troops to breakthe Railway strike;it moved warshipsand troops to Liverpool. Fromt-heuse of troopsin I9I I Eloyd Georgerecoiled,but whenin I9I9 he was ficed with t'le threatof a Miners' strike, he induced the men's lcaders to call oS their proposed action by the threatof force combinedwith the offer of a Royal Commission,whose recommcndations would be bindingon the government, and it was the threat of force which was decisive.'9 This is the special factor whichGoverilment intervention in tradedisputes introduces. Moreover, the State has a bias in favourof the stat?ws quo, and it is againstthis background that Lloyd George's significanceis to be seen." Wrd must repeat. Lloyd George was no revolutionary.He was and this is important readyto use revolutionary phrases, especially against the landedaristocracy against whomhis resentment was genuine and lasting. Hence his radicalismcould at times carryconvictionamongpoliticallyconsciousworkers,all the more so sincethe hostility he aroused, andsometimes deliberately provoked, amongthe die-hardswas also obutiously genuine,and since in his earlydayshe avoided too muchcontactwith " Society.''3lPoliiicians of the older type could and did securesocial reforms,but we may doubtwhethera Lord Randolphor a WinstonChurchill couldhave

OMMUNICATIONS C

6I

the part which came so naturally to the provincial played though both tried to do so. Hence Lenin's well-known solicitor, to his " Left Wing for him, expressedin the dedication admiration a policyof reform for stood simply George Lloyd Communism."32 the demandsof meet by the employingclassesto of concession and andto preserve upheaval social avoid to to the extentnecessary labour power. national his It is not possibleto discoverany consistentpolicy underlying theory no had He this. except of industrialdisputes settlements andLabour. To havehis policyaccepted, the justrightsof Capital of the employingclasses of the need for persuade to both hehad and the employed,that the concessionsmade in fact concession their demands(though he was sometimestempted to approached leadersroundthe conference betweencharming the difference forget that they got the rank-and-file andpersuading into agreement, table classoratory, revolutionary task this out of the affair). In something workers, their to diversionary and consoling to employers, frightening with negotiation separate of device the while role33 decisive a played dispute. acute of moment and employersassistedin the workers Unrest: The " Times" was wrong when it wrote of the Great inciteconspicuous the by fostered distinctly been has "This spirit in of the Exchequer to classhatredutteredby the Chancellor ments George Lloyd I9II). I9, (August " campaigns his electioneering attackson the House of Lordsand wasastutewhen he sandwiched the friendlyreferencesto Socialismbetween bouts of negotiating democracy a in that realised railwaysettlement of I907.34 He whichappeared only by a Government Labourcould be neutralised Capital between conflicts recurrent the in side its on to be completely well him served and Labour. This policy of managedconcession war. of the I9I4 up to the outbreak was largelyone of I)uringthe waryearsthe policyof concessions the otherpart appear payment,but here beginsto for laterpromises concession, with coercion of of Lloyd George'spolicy, the coupling seriousness the of assessment an to according discriminately employed policy dual this was It society. of foundations the to of the threat period the through Britain which in Lloyd George'shandsbrought actually of his office without far more social disturbancethan occurred.35 which dependsupon reliableState powerand a This flexibility36 of Lloyd marginfor concession,remainsas the signal contribution policy the use To people. British the of history the George to of the confidence a man is requiredwho can command successfully drive to used was affair Chanak the the democracy. By I922, when Labour him fromoffice,LloydGeorgehadceasedto be sucha man. therefore had he no longer had faith in him: to the Conservatives

62

PAST AND PRESENT

lost his value. His oratory wasstaleandhis promises unconvincing. His financialtransactions had left an unpleasant taint from which he would never afterwards escape. His career,in spite of a few spectacularattempts and interventions,was now finished. The wriiillgof his War Memoirsand his growinginclinaiion,when he spoke in Parliament,to speak on Foreicp AfEairs, has diverted atteniion fromhis domestic record, but asthe yearsarrange themselves in perspective it will surelybe accepted that,whether in the years of peaceor war,it washis geniuswhichplayedanimportant andperhaps decisivepartin preventing the emergence of a revoluiionary socialist movement, by a careful assessment of the factsandthe use of coercion and concessionaccording to the needs of the situation. This from anypointof viewis a majorcontribution to a people'shistory tondon. T. S. Adams.

NOTES
t Lloyd George at a meeting in the City of London (I7-7-I9I4), referredto the coincidenceof the Labour" insurrection" with the Irish crisis as producing a situation which would be " the gravest with which any Government has had to deal with for centuries." See Halevy, History of the English F:eople: Epilogue vol ii, 478. Lord Askwith, Industrial Problemsand Disputes, 3s3356 also emphasises the dangers of the situation. Whether revolution was near before I9I4 must remaina matterof opinion. Revolutiondid not in fact occur and no accuratehistorical apparatusexists for such assessments. My personal view is that there appearsto be some evidence of the development of a revolutionary situation, e.g. Askwith, Addressto CavendishClub, Bristol Nov. I9I3 (op. cit. 348 ff; see also 200 ff on the Coal strikeof I9I2) and Lenin 7he BritishLabourMovementin I9I2 (Coll. Works vol. xvi), but that in the ibsence of a national co-ordinatingleadership, such as Lenin and his party providedin Russia, the Governmentwas in no serious dangerof being unable to control the disturbances. n W. WatkinDavies, LloydGeorge,I863-I9I4, 84. :8 Thomas Jones,LloydGeorge, 205. 4 H. Du Parcq, David Lloyd George (I9I2), I4, says " two or three." E. T. Raymond,Mr. Lloyd George,g " generallyone or two," Jones,vp. cit., 2 "two." Davies, Op. Cit. states that on the death of David, RichardLloyd's -aeher, " the actualwork of bootmakingwas performedby the servants" until Richardgrew up and p. I2 refersto the " cobblerand his two men," but Lloyd George's son, Viscount Gwynned, in Dame Margaret; The Life Story of his >NSather, 74, says " five." 5 Malcolm Thomson, David Lloyd George, 49. " There came indeed a time after the grandmotherdied, when money ran low and the family were very near poverty." Davies, Op, Cit. I4 " It was of this period of greatest stress that Mr. Lloyd George was probably thinking when he wrote in an icle many years later: ' Our bread was home-made, we scarcely ate fresh meat and I rememberthat our greatestluxury was half-an-egg for each child on Sunday morning' " and p. I3 " The legend that Mr. Lloyd George was rearedin abject poverty, is a gross trav.esty of the truth." 6 Thomson Op. Cit. 44. 7 The Georges were the " only village boys who wore knickerbockers." Rxaymond, Op. cit. I 5 quoting Hugh Edwards,D. LloydGeorge. 8 The Owens, who claimed descent from Owen Glendower,objected to the engagementon social grounds. Thomson Op. Cit. 79.

COMMUNICATIONS

63

9He had seen and remembered the eviction of Liberal voters in I868. Thomson Op. Cit. 55. C. F. G. Mastermannoted years later that " the only insults Lloyd George resents are the insults of class arrogance." Lucy B. Masterman,C. F. G. Masterman, I50. 10Lord Riddell, War Diary for Jan. 6th, I9I8, " L1.G.: I like a good bloodthirsty novel with plenty of fighting and plenty of killing. I love Robert Louis Stevensonand Antony Hope and I don't care for George Eliot. I like Scott, but he is too long in coming to the point." For his historical reading are in generalagreement. see Thomson op. cit. 50. Otherbiographers Jones, op. cit. 279. ^1 belli of Belgium must have come as a 12 In view ot his hesitation, the cas2xs on Resignation,I4, 20, 23; also A. C. Murray, relief. Morley, Memorandum Master andBrother,12. 13 Masterman,op. cit. 234. and After, 9I8-23, 14 Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference " I notice that L.G. is steadily veering cver to the Tory for March 27, I920. point of view. He constantlyrefers to the great servicesrenderedbv captains of industry and defends the proprie,y of the large share of profits they take. He says one Leverhulme and Elierman is worth more to the wor.d than say be rewardedaccordsea-captainsor to,ooo engine driversand shouZd I00.000 ingiy. He wants to improve the world and the condition of the people but WailtS tO do it in hibown vray." contains an analysis, based on Cd 3086 15 ^{V EdwardianHeritage, I73-77 respectingthe attackon BritishOfficersat Denshawai. of I905, Correspondence The sentenceswere not relatedto the facts of this Egyptianincident, but to the and expediency of maintaining British prestige. See The Times 28-6-I906 Grey in the Commons, July 5. (2uoted by Lloyd George in his War Memoirs,vol. i, I4. Cf. 16 July I6. Lord Esher, Xournal,vol. ii for Feb. I2, I908: " He is . . . an Imperialist at heartif he is anything." 17 Thomson, op. cit. 73. 18 bid., 74. 19E.g.: " Won't you give somethingtowardskeeping them out of the workhouse ? They scowl at us and we say: ' Only a ha'penny,just a cop2er.' They say ' You're thieves' and they turn their dogs on us and you can hear their barks every morning. If this is an indicationof the view taken by those great landlordsof their responsibilityto the people who at the risk of their life create their wealth, then I say their day of reckoningis at hand." 20 Thomson, op. cit. 80. " In the very month of his wedding he joined with Dr. Daniel, a keen young local Welsh nationalist,to found in Pwllheli, a local Weish journal Udgorn Rhydd (Trumpet of Freedom), the first of several newspapersinitiatedby him . . . " 21 This somewh-atstartling but exact description was Morley's. Sir F Maurice,R. B. Haldane,vol. i, I67. Text in Sir C. Petrie, Life and 22 Jan. I7? I906, letter to Austen Chamberlain, vol. I, I76. Chamberlazn, Lettersof SarAuster, 23J. R. Clynes, My Memoirs,vol. I, III. 24His friends noted that it had aged him, Davies ap. Cit. I95. It ruined his practiceand when he enteredthe Cabinethe had an overdraftof ?4??. Riddell At least once, BirminghamTown Hall meeting Dec of . cit. for 3 I -I2-I9I8. he risked his life. Cf. Murray, op. Cit. I20 quoting Walter I8, Igor) Runciman:" I rememberhim (L.G.) saying (August I9I4) that he had enough of ' standing out against a war inflamed populace'." 26 He was Chief Liberal Whip. " The Sociahst Party was very powedd They had opened war on the Liberal Party and he was not very certainthat it might not be necessaryin the future for the LiberalPartyto embarkon another crusade." Liberal Magazine, April I906.

64

PAST AND PRESENT

*6 See J. A. Thomas, TheBritishHouseof Commons I832-I9OI. 27 Jones, op. cit. 34.

/8Thomson op. Cit. I93-5 for his importantmemorandum on this. '9 Beatrice Webb, Diaries I9I2-24) I47. R. Smiilie, the miners' leader is reported to have told his friends: " If there is a strike they will use the soldiers. My peoplewill be shot down. Anythingratherthanthat." A. Hutt Post-WarHistoryof theBrilish Working Class, 2 I . 0 One of the points on which more researchis needed is on the pattern of the use of the State coercivemachinery. Has it ever been used in this country tO compel employersto make concessions? There appearsto be no equivalent for the employersof the threat to the workersthat, if they persist in a strike the police and/or the armedforces will be used to maketheir struggleabortive. 31Riddell, Op. Cit. for Dec. S, IgI2 " L.G. said ' ;1rarelyacceptprivatedinner invitationsbut make one exception Lady St. Helier who has always been a good friend of mine. I prefer to live with my own little circle of friends. I like a cut of mutton and good brightcompany." ;9' Lenin's comment on Lloyd George is worth quoting. (Text in Lenin on Britain, I47.) It was written in I9I6: iCA first-classbourgeoisbusinessman and master of political cunning, a popular orator, able to make any kind of speech, even r-r-revolutionary speeches before Labour audiences, capable of securing fairly considerable sops for the obedient workers in the shape of social reforms(insuranceetc.), Lloyd George serves the bourgeoisiesplendidly. He serves it precisely among the workers, he transmits his influence to the proletariat,where it is most necessaryand most difficultmorallyto subjugate the masses." Again: " It would not do to dispense with elections in our age the masses cannot be dispensed with and in this epoch of the printing press and pariiamentarism it is impossible to make the massesfollow without a widely rarnifiedsystematicallymanaged well-equipped system of flattery, lies and Eaud, without juggling with fashionableand popular catch-words,scattering promises right and left of all kinds of reforms and blessingfor the workers,if onl- they will give up revolutionary struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. I would call this system Lloyd-Georgeismafter the name of the most prominentand dexterousrepresentative of this system." :);Contraste.g. Lloyd Georgeand Asquithduringthe railwaydisputeof I9I I . Asquith by his uncompromisinglanguage to the men's leaders: " then your blood be on your own head " made Government conciliation impossible August 17, and the situation was saved only by Lloyd George's Cornmons statementthe same evening putting a conciliatorygloss on the Premier'soffer of a Royal Commission. 44E.a. his speech at Madeley, biov. I) I907: cs There was a certainadvantage in Socialism in that it stirred people up to think. The real importanceof Socialismwas not the demandit made but the grievanceswhich gave rise to it. That was what was reallyat the bottom of the unrest and unless we dealt with it he dici not know what might happen, but it would not be the fault of Socialism . . . " He had first intervenedin the dispute on Oct. I9. It was settled on Nov. 6. *3a A good exampleof this flexibilityin Riddell, op. cit. for Oct. 5, I9I9. The reference is to the railway strike of that autumn. " I told the leaders: ' If there is fighting, it will put the things you and I care for back for years. The nation will turn reactionary. . . That impressedthem very much . . . The railwaymenhave agrecd not tc) strike until September, I920. That breaks up the Triple Alliance. The strike came too soon for the colliers and the transportworkers. They were not ready. Now we have detachedthe railwaymen. I think the result of the strike will have a most salutary influence." See also entry for OCt. I I. ;4 L.G. toid me that he had stood alone ib urging a settlement. All those acting with him were anxious to defeat and punish the strikers."