Essays in Liberalism | Page 7

all round. If we have made a mistake we must pay for it. If
we are really anxious to bring peace to the world, and particularly to
Europe, we must be prepared for sacrifices. We have got to establish
economic peace, and if we don't establish it in a very short time we
shall be faced with economic ruin. In the strictest, most nationalistic
interests of this country, we have to see that economic war comes to an
end. We have got to make whatever concessions are necessary in order
to bring that peace into being.
ECONOMIC PEACE
That is true not only of the reparation question; it is true of our whole
economic policy. We have been preaching to Europe, and quite rightly,
that the erection of economic barriers between countries is a treachery
to the whole spirit of the League of Nations, and all that it means, and
yet with these words scarcely uttered we turn round and pass through
Parliament a new departure in our economic system which is the very
contradiction of everything we have said in international conference.
The Safeguarding of Industries Act is absolutely opposed to the whole
spirit and purpose which the League of Nations has in view. A
reference was made by your chairman to Lord Grey, and I saw in a very
distinguished organ of the Coalition an attack on his recent speech. We
are told that he ought not at this crisis to be suggesting that the present
Government is not worthy of our confidence, but how can we trust the

present Government? How is it possible to trust them when one finds at
Brussels, at Genoa, at the Hague, and elsewhere they preach the
necessity of the economic unity of Europe, and then go down to the
House of Commons and justify this Act on the strictest, the baldest, the
most unvarnished doctrine of economic particularism for this country?
Nor does it stop there. I told you just now that for me this doctrine on
which the League is based goes right through many other problems
than those of a strictly international character. You will never solve
Indian or Egyptian difficulties by a reliance on force and force alone. I
believe that the deplorable, the scandalous condition to which the
neighbouring island of Ireland has been reduced is largely due to the
failure to recognise that by unrestricted unreasoning, and sometimes
immoral force, you cannot reach the solution of the difficulties of that
country.
And in industry it is the same thing. If you are really to get a solution of
these great problems, depend upon it you will never do it by strikes and
lock-outs. I am an outsider in industrial matters. I am reproached when
I venture to say anything about them with the observation that I am no
business man. I can only hope that in this case lookers-on may
sometimes see most of the game. But to me it is profoundly depressing
when I see whichever section of the industrial world happens to have
the market with it--whether employers or wage-earners--making it its
only concern to down the other party as much as it can. You will never
reach a solution that way. You have to recognise in industrial as in
international affairs that the spirit of co-operation, the spirit of
partnership, is your only hope of salvation.
THE TWO CAUSES OF UNREST
What is the conclusion of what I have tried to say to you? There are at
the present time two great causes of fighting and hostility. There used
to be three. There was a time when men fought about religious doctrine,
and though I do not defend it, it was perhaps less sordid than some of
our fights to-day. Now the two great causes of fighting are greed and
fear. Generally speaking, I think we may say that greed in international
matters is a less potent cause of hostility than fear. The disease the

world is suffering from is the disease of fear and suspicion. You see it
between man and man, between class and class, and most of all
between nation and nation. People reproach this great country and other
great countries with being unreasonable or unwilling to make
concessions. If you look deeply into it you will find always the same
cause. It is not mere perversity; it is fear and fear alone that makes men
unreasonable and contentious. It is no new thing; it has existed from the
foundation of the world. The Prime Minister the other day said, and
said quite truly, that the provisions of the Covenant, however admirable,
were not in themselves sufficient to secure the peace of the world. He
made an appeal, quite rightly, to the religious forces and organisations
to assist. I agree, but after