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Page 11
For my own part, I am not the least bit frightened by any of these
questions. If I am asked whether I would tax this or tax that, it may
be proof of great depravity on my part, but I say without hesitation,
that, for a sufficient object, I should not have the least objection
to putting two shillings a quarter on wheat or twopence a pound on
butter. But I must add that the whole argument nauseates me. What sort
of opinion must these gentlemen have of their fellow countrymen, if
they think that the question of a farthing on the quartern loaf or
half a farthing on the pat of butter is going to outweigh in their
minds every national consideration? And these are the men who accused
Mr. Chamberlain of wishing to unite the Empire by sordid bonds! It is
indeed extraordinary and to my mind almost heartrending to see how
this question of Tariff Reform continues to be discussed on the lowest
grounds, and how its higher and wider aspects seem to be so constantly
neglected. Yet we have no excuse for ignoring them. The Colonial
advocates of Preference, and especially Mr. Deakin, with whose point
of view I thoroughly agree, have repeatedly explained the great
political, national, and I might almost say moral aspects of that
policy. There is a great deal more in it than a readjustment of
duties--twopence off this and a penny on that. I do not say that such
details are not important. When the time comes I am prepared to
show--and I am an old hand at these things--that the objections which
loom so large in many eyes can really be very easily circumvented. But
I would not attempt to bother my fellow countrymen with complicated
changes in their fiscal arrangements, or even with the discussion of
them, if it were not for the bigness of the principle that is
involved.
I wish to look at it from two points of view. The principle which
lies at the root of Tariff Reform, in its Imperial aspect, is the
national principle. The people of these great dominions beyond the
seas are no strangers to us. They are our own kith and kin. We do not
wish to deal with them, even in merely material matters, on the same
basis as with strangers. That is the great difference between us
Tariff Reformers and the Cobdenites. The Cobdenite only looks at the
commercial side. He is a cosmopolitan. He does not care from whom he
buys, or to whom he sells. He does not care about the ulterior effects
of his trading, whether it promotes British industry or ruins it;
whether it assists the growth of the kindred States, or only enriches
foreign countries. To us Tariff Reformers these matters are of moment,
and of the most tremendous moment. We do not undervalue our great
foreign trade, and I for one am convinced that there is nothing in the
principles of Tariff Reform which will injure that trade. Quite the
reverse. But we do hold that our first concern is with the industry
and productive capacities of our own country, and our next with those
of the great kindred countries across the seas. We hold that a wise
fiscal policy would help to direct commerce into channels which would
not only assist the British worker, but also assist Colonial
development, and make for the greater and more rapid growth of those
countries, which not only contain our best customers, but our fellow
citizens.
That, I say, is one aspect of the matter. But then there is the other
side--the question of social reform in this country. Now here again we
differ from the Cobdenite. The Cobdenite is an individualist. He
believes that private enterprise, working under a system of unfettered
competition, with cheapness as its supreme object, is the surest road
to universal well-being. The Tariff Reformer also believes in private
enterprise, but he does not believe that the mere blind struggle for
individual gain is going to produce the most beneficent results. He
does not believe in cheapness if it is the result of sweating or of
underpaid labour. He keeps before him as the main object of all
domestic policy the gradual, steady elevation of the standard of life
throughout the community; and he believes that the action of the
State deliberately directed to the encouragement of British industry,
not merely by tariffs, is part and parcel of any sound national policy
and of true Imperialism. And please observe that in a number of cases
the Radical party itself has abandoned Cobdenism. Pure individualism
went to the wall in the Factory Acts, and it is going to the wall
every day in our domestic legislation. It is solely with regard to
this matter of imports that the Radical party still cling to the
Cobdenite doctrine, and the consequence is that their policy has
become a mass of inconsistencies. It is devoid of any logical
foundation whatever.
I know that there are many people, sound Unionists at heart, who still
have a difficulty about accepting the doctrines of the Tariff
Reformers. My belief is that, if they could only look at the matter
from the broad national and Imperial point of view, they would come to
alter their convictions. I am not advocating Tariff Reform as in
itself the greatest of human objects. But it seems to me the key of
the position. It seems to me that, without it, we can neither take the
first steps towards drawing closer the bonds between the mother
country and the great self-governing States of the Empire; nor
maintain the prosperity of the British worker in face of unfair
foreign competition; nor obtain that large and elastic revenue which
is absolutely essential, if we are going to pursue a policy of social
reform and mean real business. I cannot but hope that many of those
who still shy at Tariff Reform, when they come to look at it from this
point of view--to see it as I see it, not as an isolated thing, but as
an essential and necessary part of a comprehensive national
policy--will rally to our cause. I have travelled along that road
myself. I have been a Cobdenite myself--I am not ashamed of it. But I
have come to see that the doctrine of free imports--the religion of
free imports, I ought to say--as it is practised in this country
to-day, is inconsistent with social reform, inconsistent with fair
play to British industry, and inconsistent with the development and
consolidation of the Empire. And therefore I rejoice that, in the
really great speech which he delivered last night, the leader of the
Unionist party has once more unhesitatingly affirmed his adhesion to
the principles which I have been trying, in my feebler way, to
advocate here this evening. My own conviction is that, when these
principles are understood in all their bearings, they will command the
approval of the mass of the people. And even in Scotland, where I dare
say it is a very uphill fight, I look forward with confidence to their
ultimate victory. Do not let us be discouraged if the fight is long
and the progress slow. The great permanent influences are on our side.
On the one hand there is the growth of the Empire, with all the
opportunities which it affords; on the other there is the increasing
determination of foreign nations to keep their business to themselves.
These potent facts, which have already converted so many leading
minds, will in due time make themselves felt in ever-widening circles.
And they will not fail to produce their effect upon the shrewd
practical sense of the Scottish people, especially when combined with
an appeal to the patriotic instincts of a race which has done so much
to make the Empire what it is, and which has such a supreme interest
in its maintenance and consolidation.
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