journal of the churchill center and societies - Winston Churchill

100-75-50-25 YEARS AGO
One hundred years ago:
Autumn 1900 • Age 26
"...you must remember how
much money means to me..."
Michael McMenamin
Money, or his lack of it, was very
much on Churchill's mind after
his election to Parliament for Oldham
on 2 October. Thereafter, he toured the
country during the remainder of the
three-week polling period speaking on
behalf of many Conservative candidates,
including Balfour and Chamberlain.
Of a proposed lecture tour in England
after the election concluded, he
wrote to his mother, "But you must remember
how much money means to
me and how much I need it for political
expense and other purposes, and if I can
make £3000 by giving a score of lectures
in the big towns throughout England
on the purely military aspect of the
[Boer] war, it is very hard for me to
refuse...." Churchill didn't refuse and
ended up with over £3700 for twentynine
speeches during a thirty-day period
in November. In one speech, he
defended British tactics in South Africa
against accusations that they constituted
"atrocious barbarities...[in] violation
of all the practices of civilised warfare,"
stating that "the justification of
the measures resorted to in order to put
an end to guerrilla warfare is that no
methods, however stringent, or painful,
or severe, can possibly cost so much
misery as the continuance of the anarchy
and disorder now prevailing."
Churchill had even higher hopes
for a lucrative pay day from a North
America tour. As he wrote his mother:
"I will not go to the United States unless
guaranteed at least £1000 a month
for three months and I should expect a
great deal more. Five thousand pounds
is not too much for making oneself so
cheap." It was not to be. In the event,
he was to clear only £1600 in a tour
which started on 8 December and continued
through 2 February 1901.
Seventy-five years ago:
Autumn 1925 -Age 51
"The Twelve Apostles
of Reassurance"
Churchill spent October 1925 delivering
almost a daily series of
speeches defending his economic policy
and his first Budget against criticism
from friend and foe alike. In a speech at
Colchester, Churchill mocked those
who had attacked his income tax cuts:
"In that Budget I committed some serious
crimes. I reduced the income-tax,
and I differentiated the income-tax in
favour of the smaller income-tax
payer....I have been scolded for these |
evil deeds [but] if the Economy Committee
over which the Prime Minister is
presiding almost every day has not
reaped the harvest of economy which it
hopes to achieve, it is quite possible that
it may be my duty to make amends in
practical form for the past, and to restore
to the taxpayer some portion at
least of the burdens of which I so
wrongfully robbed him."
At the Engineers' Club Annual
Dinner at the Savoy on October 23rd,
he surveyed in his optimistic fashion
the economic picture: "I have been accused
of not taking a sufficiently
gloomy view of affairs. All I said was
that things are not getting worse and
that there is even a probability that they
may get better. I can give twelve principal
reasons which justify that conclusion.
I call them the 'Twelve Apostles of
Reassurance'....Our share in the oversea
trade of the world has not diminished
since the war. It is true that there is a reduced
amount of world oversea trade,
but of that reduced trade we possess, in
fact, slightly a larger proportion than
before the war....There has been, if not
a great, yet an appreciable diminution
in the cost of living during the
year....The consuming power of the
people has not diminished, but has
been maintained, and in many important
commodities it has increased....The
number of people who reached the employable
age last year was 100,000. Still,
there are 250,000 more people at work
today in Great Britain than a year
ago....What is the moral conclusion to
draw from this recital It is to 'leave off
barracking the Government, leave off
trying to rattle the new party, leave off
crying down the national credit, leave
off spreading tales of despondency and
alarm, and fear throughout the British
Empire and the world. Show some
measure of gratitude and fair play to the
men who are called upon to bear the responsibilities
of the day.'"
Nevertheless, the spectre of a national
strike in the coming spring was
never far from Churchill's thoughts. He
rarely passed up an opportunity to criticize
Arthur Cook, leader of the Mine
Workers Union. In his speech at the
Engineer's Club, he concluded his rosy
FINEST HOUR IOS /18