LIBERALISM AND INDUSTRY

I am sure that the recent malaise in the Liberal Party has been due to something much more important than personalities, and rightly considered, much more encouraging. It is due to the fact that the subject matter of Liberalism is changing. The destruction of private monopoly, the fight against landlordism and protection, the development of personal and religious liberty, the evolution of democratic government at home and throughout the Empire—on all those issues the battle has been largely won.

Today and in the years to come the battle is going to be fought on new issues. The problems of today are different, and, in the main, these new problems are industrial or, if you like, economic. Now, this change, which will be a disturbing thing for all the historic parties, is partly a result of the victory of democracy, and of the new self-consciousness and the new organisation of the wage-earning classes. But it is not entirely psychological in its origins. It is due also, as I believe, to the arrival of a new industrial revolution, a new economic transition which we have to meet with new expedients and new solutions.