ON ENGLAND

And other Addresses

BY

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

STANLEY BALDWIN, M.P.

FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY AND PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN

LONDON PHILIP ALLAN & CO. LTD. QUALITY COURT

First impression April 1926. Second impression May 1926. Third impression May 1926. Fourth impression July 1926. Fifth impression October 1926. Cheap Edition April 1927.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW.

PREFACE

I have allowed, with some misgivings, some of the speeches or extracts from speeches made by me in the last two years or so to be put together in the following pages. They were in general delivered amidst the press of thronging duties and urgent preoccupations, and in this book they appear as the faithful reporter set them down at the moment of delivery. Without revision subsequently, without at the time the advantage of the ultima manus, they must not be judged as the leisured product of the study now that they are brought together in the fashion of a book.

It is a sound, if onerous, tradition which compels our public men to travel beyond the bounds of Party and to interpret, so far as each has power, the thought and striving of the Nation at its best, whether in politics, in industry, in art or in the practice of charity.

Public speeches are of use if they lead men to dwell on the thoughts of service to their country and of help to one another: and if these lingering echoes of former words of mine avail, in however small a measure, towards that end, those who wished to publish this book will have been justified.

STANLEY BALDWIN.

10 DOWNING STREET, 7th April, 1926.

CONTENTS

ON ENGLAND AND THE WEST

England My Native Town Stourport Worcester Memories

ON PEACE IN INDUSTRY

Peace in Industry. I Peace in Industry. II Industry and Psychology The Gospel of Hate

ON POLITICAL LIFE

Service Democracy and the Spirit of Service Truth and Politics Rhetoric

ON LITERATURE AND THE ARTS

The Classics Shakespeare Byron W. H. Hudson Art Artists and Politicians

ON EDUCATION

Self-Education Political Education Teachers and Taught

ON SOME GREAT MEN

Bonar Law Lord Curzon Lord Milner and Arnold Toynbee Lord Oxford

ON THE NATION AND THE CHURCHES

Religion and Politics The Church Army Christian Ideals

ON THE EMPIRE

Empire Day Message, 1925 Democracy and the Empire Disarmament

MISCELLANEOUS

Scotland Ireland Wales Glasgow Anglo-American Friendship Friendly Societies Harrow Some Ancestors A War Memorial

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE STANLEY BALDWIN

29th Feb. 1908. Mr. Baldwin succeeds his father as Member for Bewdley.

6th Dec. 1916. Resignation of Mr. Asquith and formation of 2nd Coalition Government by Mr. Lloyd George. Mr. Bonar Law becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer.

22nd Dec. 1916. Mr. Baldwin is appointed Parliamentary Secretary to Mr. Bonar Law.

30th Jan. 1917. Becomes Junior Lord of the Treasury.

18th June, 1917. Becomes Joint Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

4th Dec. 1918. General Election.

17th March, 1921. Mr. Bonar Law resigns office in the Coalition Government.

1st April, 1921. Mr. Baldwin appointed President of the Board of Trade.

19th Oct. 1922. Carlton Club Meeting.

19th Oct. 1922. Mr. Lloyd George resigns.

24th Oct. 1922. Mr. Bonar Law forms his Government.

24th Oct. 1922. Mr. Baldwin becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer.

20th May, 1923. Mr. Bonar Law resigns.

22nd May, 1923. Mr. Baldwin becomes Prime Minister.

28th May, 1923. Mr. Baldwin elected Leader of the Unionist Party.

25th Oct. 1923. Mr. Baldwin's speech at Plymouth on Protection.

6th Dec. 1923. General Election.

22nd Jan. 1924. Mr. Baldwin resigns.

29th Oct. 1924. General Election.

4th Nov. 1924. Mr. Baldwin again becomes Prime Minister.