WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

170 WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
pened to Russia. In the end it befell Bulgaria, Austria and
finally Germany. To guard against it happening to Britain
was the most anxious preoccupation of statesmanship here.
In a modern industrial State, the vast bulk of the population
consists of wage earners and those dependent on them.
Since Britain is the most highly industrialised State in the
world, the contentment and cooperation of the wage earners
was our vital concern, and industrial unrest spelt a graver
menace to our endurance and ultimate victory than even the
military strength of Germany. In this respect we started the
War under a heavy handicap. Its outbreak came at a time
when disturbances in the ranks of British labour were more
serious and widespread than they had been at any time since
the rise of large-scale industrial organisation. The old industrial
tyranny of the nineteenth century was breaking up.
A new and hopeful spirit of justifiable discontent was abroad,
fostered by the spread of education. It was accorded sympathetic
treatment by the Government of the day in their
attitude to social questions and the ameliorative legislation
they had enacted. But this did not satisfy the new spirit of
dissatisfaction with economic conditions. Workers were agitating
for a higher standard of life and a more dignified
status than they had endured in the past. From 1911 onwards
there was a steady development of strike action, and
in the summer of 1914 there was every sign that the autumn
would witness a series of industrial disturbances without
precedent. Trouble was threatening in the railway, mining,
engineering and building industries. Disagreements were
active, not only between employers and employed, but in
the internal organisation of the workers. A strong "rank
and file" movement, keenly critical of the policy and methods
of the official leaders of Trade Unionism, had sprung up and
was gaining steadily in strength. Such was the state of the
home front when the nation was plunged into war.