DISRAELI AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25736, 6 January 1945, Page 4

DISRAELI AND SOCIAL CHANGE

x The reference by Mr Churchill to Disraeli, in his New Year message to members of the Primrose League, is surely well worth pondering. “ In a progressive country change is constant, and the great question is not whether you should resist change which is inevitable, but whether that change should be carried out in deference to the manners, customs, laws, and traditions of the people, or in deference to abstract principles and arbitrary and general doctrines.” Disraeli had a genuine desire to improve the conditions of the working class of his day, as was shown in the debates on the Chartist petition and during the disturbances of 183940. He realised that social change was in the very nature of things, and accepted the duty of social reform. It is worth recalling that his maiden speech in the House of Commons on December 7, 1837, was a failure. He was laughed down, but not before he had warned his interrupters that one day they would have to listen to him. He was a champion of national liberty, and we should remember his philosophy in view of the planning for social change in the post-war years. He had an organic view of society and of national growth. National character, he asserted, is fashioned by history and institutions, and to destroy a nation’s institutions is to destroy its life. In his whole career as a British statesman Disraeli showed his belief in the supreme worth of the individual. History is in favour of all individuals, of individualism in general; nations are natural organisations of homogeneous individuals. We learn from history that people and nations are more and more ready to work for themselves, without depending on the labour of others. Idleness, the oppressive form of aristocracy, whether in individuals, in classes, in nations, or in races, is diminishing. In all nations the best men are agreed in prizing spiritual and moral forces; humanity is the effective watchword of the champions of all nations. Disraeli founded the Primrose League—so-called because of one of his alleged floral preferences. But his legacy is more than a mere sentimental tradition. We have inherited from him a spirit, if not a set, of dogmas making for social changes

in the days to come, changes that will be worthy of democracy. Following the lead of Disraeli, Mr Churchill speaks, and rightly so, of “ new policies to conform with the spirit of the new times.” Pride in our British Commonwealth of Nations is not incompatible with definite planning for world-wide social change. For pride in the Empire is something quite apart from all considerations of material profit. Disraeli regarded the Crown as the symbol of national and Imperial unity and gave forcible expression, at the same time, to the highest ideals of a free people.