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Page 39
"All the fallacies and wild theories of revolutionary minds," he once
said to me, "break ultimately on the rock of industrial fact. The more
freely nations trade together the more clearly will it be seen that
humanity must work out its salvation within the limits of economic law.
And the way to a smooth working out of that salvation is by recognizing
the claims of the moral law. We are men before we are merchants. There
is no reason why mistrust should exist between management and labour.
The economic law by no means excludes, but rather demands, humaneness. I
believe that a system of profit sharing can be devised which will bring
management and labour into a sensible partnership. Selfishness on the
part of capital is as bad as selfishness on the part of labour. Both
must be unselfish, both must think of the general community, and both
must work hard. The two chief enemies of mankind are moral slackness and
physical slackness."
There is no man living who would make a better Chancellor of the
Exchequer than this merchant prince who, however, has had enough of
politics and is going back very gladly to his desk in the City. He is
not in the least soured by the public ingratitude, and rightly judges it
to be rather the voice of unscrupulous and stunt-seeking journalism than
the considered judgment of the nation. But he has a very poor opinion of
the way in which the Government of the country conducts its business.
LORD LEVERHULME
LORD LEVERHULME, 1ST BARON (WILLIAM HESKETH LEVER)
Born 1851, Lancashire. Educ.: Bolton Church Institute; Chairman of
Lever Bros., Port Sunlight; High Sheriff, Lancaster, 1917.
[Illustration: LORD LEVERHULME]
CHAPTER XIII
LORD LEVERHULME
_"Dullness is so much stronger than genius because there is so much
more of it, and it is better organized and more naturally cohesive_
inter se. _So the Arctic volcano can do nothing against Arctic
ice."_--SAMUEL BUTLER.
The reader may properly wonder to find the figure of Lord Leverhulme
brought before the mirrors of Downing Street.
But let me explain why I introduce this industrial Triton into the
society of our political minnows.
Lord Leverhulme rejected politics only when politics rejected him. He is
of that distinguished company to whom the House of Commons has turned
both a deaf ear and a cold shoulder. He failed where Mr. Walter Long
succeeded, and fell where Dr. Macnamara rose.
I once asked a Cabinet Minister how it was that a man of such
conspicuous quality had failed to win office. "I really cannot tell
you," he replied with complacency, "but I remember very well that the
House of Commons never took to him. It is curious how many men who do
well outside the House of Commons fail to make good inside."
Curious indeed! But more curious still, we may surely say, that the
House of Commons should continue, in the light of this knowledge, to
enjoy so good an opinion of itself.
I suppose that nobody will now dispute that Lord Leverhulme is easily
the foremost industrialist, not merely in the British Isles, but in the
world. I can think of no one who approaches him in the creative faculty.
Not even America, the country of big men and big businesses, has
produced a man of this truly colossal stature. Mr. Rockefeller is a name
for a committee. Mr. Carnegie was pushed to fortune by his more resolute
henchmen. But Lord Leverhulme, as is very well known in America, has
been the sole architect of his tremendous fortunes, and in all his
numerous undertakings exercises the power of an unquestioned autocrat.
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