Read Online Never Give In! by Winston Churchill - Free Book Online

a majority for their caucus at some recent election, and whose officials in consequence would look on humanity through innumerable grills and pigeon-holes and across innumerable counters, and say to them, ‘Tickets, please.’ ( Laughter. ) Truly this grey old world has never seen so grim a joke. ( Applause. ) Now, ladies and gentlemen, no man can be either a collectivist or an individual. He must be both; everybody must be both a collectivist and an individualist. For certain of our affairs we must have our arrangements in common. Others we must have sacredly individual and to ourselves. ( Cheers. ) We have many good things in common. You have the police, the Army, the Navy, and officials – why, a President of the Board of Trade you have in common. ( Applause. ) But we don’t eat in common; we eat individually. ( Laughter. ) And we don’t ask the ladies to marry us in common. ( Laughter. ) And you will find the truth lies in these matters, as it always lies in difficult matters, midway between extreme formulae. It is in the nice adjustment of the respective ideas of collectivism and individualism that the problem of the world and the solution of that problem lie in the years to come. ( Applause. ) But I have no hesitation in saying that I am on the side of those who think that a greater collective element should be introduced into the State and municipalities. I should like to see the State undertaking new functions, particularly stepping forward into those spheres of activity which are governed by an element of monopoly. ( Applause. ) Your tramways and so on; your great public works, which are of a monopolistic and privileged character – there I see a wide field for State enterprise to embark upon. But when we are told to exalt and admire a philosophy which destroys individualism and seeks to replace it by collectivism, I say that is a monstrous and imbecile conception which can find no real foothold in the brains and hearts – and the hearts are as trustworthy as the brains – in the hearts of sensible people. ( Loud cheers. )
    ‘I AM THE BOARD OF TRADE’
    4 February 1909
    Chamber of Commerce dinner, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
    If there is any office in the Government which should claim a friendly reception it is the Board of Trade. In a sense I am the Board of Trade. ( Laughter. ) I preside over a Board which for centuries has not met. One constitutes a quorum. I am that quorum. But in a larger sense the Board of Trade is a great apparatus of beneficent Government organisation, a great accumulation of knowledge, and it has a staff which is quite equal to the very finest flavour of the Civil Service. Its attitude is non-partisan. It has relations with all parties and with the leaders not only of industrial enterprise but of the trade unions, and both sides are willing to give the Board the best information they have when any important question arises. The statutory powers of the Board are large, and the amount of work done that is outside the statutory powers, by goodwill and conciliation, is also great. Both sides know that they will get fair treatment, and that there will be no hanky-panky or jerrymandering in dealing with different interests and different classes. This undoubtedly gives the Board in its larger aspect an influence far outside any power that is conferred upon it by Parliament. ( Cheers. ) Its three great principles, enunciated by my predecessor, are ‘Confer, Conciliate, and Compromise’.
    THE BUDGET: ‘CANNOT AFFORD TO LIVE OR DIE’
    22 May 1909
    Free Trade Hall, Manchester
    Considering that you have all been ruined by the Budget – ( laughter ), – I think it very kind of you to receive me so well. When I remember all the injuries you have suffered – how South Africa has been lost – ( laughter ); – how the gold mines have been thrown away; how all the splendid army which Mr Brodrick got together – ( laughter ) – has been reduced to a sham; and how, of course, we have got no navy of