backwards, but there are some things they cannot undo.  We may be driven from power.  We may desire to be released from responsibility.  Much of our work may be cut short, much may be overturned.  But there are some things which Tory reaction will not dare to touch, and, like the settlement and reconciliation of South Africa, so the Old-Age Pensions Act will live and grow and ripen as the years roll by, far beyond the reach of Party warfare and far above the changing moods of faction.

There are many political injustices in this country and many absurd, oppressive, or obsolete practices.  But the main aspirations of the British people are at this present time social rather than political.  They see around them on every side, and almost every day, spectacles of confusion and misery which they cannot reconcile with any conception of humanity or justice.  They see that there are in the modern state a score of misfortunes that can happen to a man without his being in fault in any way, and without his being able to guard against them in any way.  They see, on the other hand, the mighty power of science, backed by wealth and power, to introduce order, to provide safeguards, to prevent accidents, or at least to mitigate their consequences.  They know that this country is the richest in the world; and in my sincere judgment the British democracy will not give their hearts to any Party that is not able and willing to set up that larger, fuller, more elaborate, more thorough social organisation, without which our country and its people will inevitably sink through sorrow to disaster and our name and fame fade upon the pages of history.

We have done some of that work, and we are going to do more.  In moving forward to this great struggle which is approaching, we are going to carry our social policy along with us.  We are not going to fight alone upon the political and constitutional issue, nor alone upon the defence of free trade.  We are going, fearless of the consequences, confident of our faith, to place before the nation a wide, comprehensive, interdependent scheme of social organisation—­to place it before the people not merely in the speeches or placards of a Party programme, but by a massive series of legislative proposals and administrative acts.  If we are interrupted or impeded in our march, the nation will know how to deal with those who stand in the path of vital and necessary reforms.  And I am confident that in the day of battle the victory will be to the earnest and to the persevering; and then again will be heard the doleful wail of Tory rout and ruin, and the loud and resounding acclamations with which the triumphant armies of democracy will march once again into the central place of power.

THE SECOND READING OF THE ANTI-SWEATING BILL[14]

HOUSE OF COMMONS, April 28, 1909

It is a serious national evil that any class of his Majesty’s subjects should receive in return for their utmost exertions less than a living wage.