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CHURCHILL'S DEFEAT IN DUNDEE, 1922, AND THE DECLINE OF LIBERAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2019

JIM TOMLINSON Open the ORCID record for JIM TOMLINSON [Opens in a new window]
JIM TOMLINSON*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
*
Economic and Social History, University of Glasgow, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, Glasgow, G12 8RT [email protected]
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Abstract

This article uses Churchill's defeat in Dundee in 1922 to examine the challenges to liberal political economy in Britain posed by the First World War. In particular, the focus is on the impact of the war on reshaping the global division of labour and the difficulties in responding to the domestic consequences of this reshaping. Dundee provides an ideal basis for examining the links between local politics and global economic changes in this period because of the traumatic effects of the war on the city. Dundee depended to an extraordinary extent on one, extremely ‘globalized’, industry – jute – for its employment. All raw jute brought to Dundee came from Bengal, and the markets for its product were scattered all over the world. Moreover, the main competitive threat to the industry came from a much poorer economy (India), so that jute manufacturing was the first major British industry to be significantly affected by low-wage competition. Before 1914, the Liberals combined advocacy of free trade with a significant set of interventions in the labour market and in social welfare, including trade boards. The Dundee case allows us to examine in detail the responses to post-war challenges to these Liberal orthodoxies.

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The Historical Journal , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , September 2020 , pp. 980 - 1006
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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33 Though a more informal employers' body seems to have had a longer history: there is reference to a ‘Dundee Spinners and Manufacturers Association’ in the Advertiser (Dundee), 8 Jan. 1913 (cutting in CACCUC, CHAR 5/15/1).

34 In line with the conventions of the time, and as in 1908 when he was appointed president of the Board of Trade, Churchill had to resign his parliamentary seat on being given a new ministerial job.

35 Courier (Dundee), 4 Aug. 1917.

36 Courier, 13 July 1917. During the campaign, Churchill expressed support for temperance ideas, and emphasized that the election was not about Scrymgeour's prohibitionism: Courier, 28 July 1917. For Churchill's 1917 election address, 26 July 1917 (which made no mention of Scrymgeour), see CACCUC, CHAR 5/19/18–21.

37 Courier, 25 July 1917; Courier, 28 July 1917; acceptance speech by Clementine Churchill, Courier, 4 Aug. 1917.

38 J. Sime, letter to Courier, 23 July 1917.

39 Dundee Chamber of Commerce (DCC) minutes, 20 Jan. 1916, Dundee City Archives (DCA), GD/CC/4/9.

40 Courier, 14 June 1918; see also Scotsman, 14 June 1918; ‘Report of the departmental committee appointed by the Board of Trade to consider the position of the textile trades after the war’, Cd 9070, BPP 1918, vol. iii.

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43 Courier, 2 Oct. 1918; DUA, MS 84/3/1(3), 11 Oct. 1918. But the problem of hours of work dogged discussion between employers and unions, with employers wishing to revert to a fifty-five-hour week as more raw jute became available.

44 Churchill to George Ritchie, president of the Liberal Association, 5 Nov. 1918, CACCUC, CHAR 5/20/13–15. Churchill writes that he hopes that the Tories will support him, and that Labour will not put anyone up against Wilkie, so that the two will be easily returned.

45 W. Churchill, ‘Draft election address’, CACCUC, CHAR 5/20/36.

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49 Address to DCC, Courier, 11 Dec. 1918.

50 Courier, 30 Dec. 1918. The local Unionists endorsed Wilkie: see Baxter and Kenefick, ‘Labour politics and the Dundee working class’, p. 205.

51 Scrymgeour styled himself the ‘real labour candidate’ whatever the label: Courier, 23 Nov. 1918.

52 AJSM joint meeting with unions, 4 Mar. 1919, DUA, MS 84/5/1(7); though at first they had thought of making an approach on their own: meeting of 13 Jan. 1919, MS 84/3/1(3).

53 AJSM association meeting, 13 Feb. 1919, DUA, MS 84/3/1(2); AJSM general committee meetings, 3 Feb., 4 Feb., 25 Feb., 6 Mar., 7 Mar., 10 Mar. 1919, MS 84/3/1(3).

54 AJSM joint meeting with unions, 4 Mar. 1919, DUA, MS 84/5/1(7); Tomlinson, Dundee and the empire, pp. 112–15.

55 AJSM, meeting with DFMOU, 11 Apr. 1919, DUA, MS 84/5/1(7).

56 DCC, minutes, 25 Nov. 1919, DCA, DCC GD/CC/4/10.

57 DCC, minutes, 5 Feb. 1920, DCA DCC GD/CC/4/10.

58 AJSM, ‘Report of deputation to London’, 15 Apr. 1919, DUA, MS 84/3/1(2).

59 Courier, 18 Apr. 1919.

60 AJSM general committee meeting, 20 May 1919, DUA, MS 84/3/1(3).

61 Courier, 23 Dec. 1919.

62 Courier, 23 Dec. 1919.

63 Courier, 31 Dec. 1919.

64 Courier, 24 Dec. 1919.

65 S. Blackburn, A fair day's wage for a fair day's work? Sweated labour and the origins of minimum wage legislation in Britain (Aldershot, 2007).

66 Cited in Blackburn, S., ‘Ideology and social policy: the origins of the Trade Boards Act’, Historical Journal, 34 (1991), pp. 43–64, at p. 43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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69 W. S. Churchill, ‘Sweated industries’, 27 Jan. 1909, TNA: PRO, CAB 37/97/13; W. S. Churchill, ‘Draft of Trade Boards Bill’, 12 Mar. 1909, TNA: PRO, CAB 37/98/42. This memo is in CACCUC, CHAR 11/16/251. See also his contribution to the second reading of the Bill, HC Deb., 28 April 1909, vol. 4, cols. 387–405, where he cited John Stuart Mill in support of the proposition that ‘General low wages never caused any country to undersell its rivals; nor did general high wages ever hinder it’ (col. 387). But he also stressed that it was not applicable to staple trades (cols. 388–9) and ‘I am strongly opposed to the extension of this Bill to the organised trades of the country’ (col. 405).

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72 Walker, Juteopolis, p. 420.

73 W. S. Churchill, covering note to draft bill, 12 Mar. 1909, CACCUC, CHAR 11/16/251–2.

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80 Sells, British trade boards system; the wages set by the board are detailed in AJSM, ‘Annual report 1939’, DUA, MS 84/2, appendix H.

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88 DDUJFW to minister of Labour, 21 Feb. 1921, and Deputation of Dundee jute workers to the minister of Labour, 1 Mar. 1921, TNA: PRO, LAB2/842/TBM114/18/1921. The opposing positions of the employers and unions were set out in detail at the trade board meeting in Feb. 1921: see ‘Report on the discussion, at the meeting of the jute trade board on February 16th and 17th’, TNA: PRO, LAB2/842/TBM114/18/1921.

89 Churchill to D. Lloyd George, 23 Sep. 1921, CACCUC, CHAR 5/24/94–9.

90 This was part of a nationwide employer and Conservative campaign against the boards, which was also strongly supported by the Treasury in the context of public spending cuts: Lowe, R., Adjusting to democracy: the role of the Ministry of Labour in British politics, 1916–1939 (Oxford, 1986), pp. 60–1, 99–100, 102–4Google Scholar.

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93 Precise reliable data is not available for the industry or city for these years, but the numbers reported in the local press (Courier, 19 Dec. 1921) broadly match those identified in national studies: Hilton, J., ‘Statistics of unemployment derived from the working of the unemployment insurance acts’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 86 (1923), pp. 154–205, at appendix 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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98 M. Barlow, ‘Dundee’, CACCUC, CHAR 5/22/62–3, which argues that a big obstacle to employment of disabled ex-servicemen is the trade board's wage of 50 shillings per week for men, as opposed to 35 shillings for women. Barlow's report is at CHAR 5/22/64–7.

99 Ritchie to Churchill, 15 Apr. 1921, CACCUC, CHAR 5/24/26–50; Churchill to Ritchie, 11 Sep. 1921, CHAR 5/24/76–100.

100 Churchill to Lloyd George, 23 Sep. 1921, CACCUC, CHAR 5/24/94–9.

101 Ibid., CHAR 5/24/98.

102 The party had been making significant gains in local elections from 1919: Baxter and Kenefick, ‘Labour politics and the Dundee working class’, pp. 205–6.

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105 Prohibitionist, 18 Nov. 1922. Prior to the election, he had used the paper to conduct his feud with local Labour figures, while attacking them for not supporting him as a second Labour candidate in the election. See, for example, Prohibitionist, 11 Mar. 1922, 6 May 1922, 21 June 1922, 22 July 1922, 28 Oct. 1922, 4 Nov. 1922.

106 Southgate, ‘Politics and representation’, p. 303. This tactic was urged by Scymgeour: Prohibitionist, 11 Nov. 1922, 18 Nov. 1922.

107 Walker, ‘Dundee's disenchantment with Churchill’, p. 91.

108 Kemp, ‘Drink and the labour movement’.

109 Searle, Liberal party, p. 118.

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118 Joseph Philip to Churchill, 25 Apr. 1922, CACCUC, CHAR 5/26/76.

119 W. S. Churchill, ‘Speech’, 13 June 1921, DUA, MS 93/1/8/2/9/1/3; D. MacDonald to Churchill, 30 May 1922, MS 93/1/8/2/9/1/1.

120 Advertiser, 8 Apr. 1922.

121 J. Robertson to Churchill, 13 June 1922, CACCUC, CHAR 5/27/53–4; Southgate, ‘Politics and representation’, p. 314. Some of the difficulties in Dundee liberalism at this time are nicely indicated by the fact that Professor Steggall, in proposing the amendment in support of Churchill and Robertson, said he ‘loathed the Coalition’: W. Macdonald, notes on Liberal Association meeting, 12 June 1922, CACCUC, CHAR 5/27/40.

122 Southgate, ‘Politics and representation’, p. 315. Much of the course of the campaign can be tracked through the two main local newspapers, both of which carried extensive verbatim reports. Paterson, Seat for life, also conveys the flavour well. For the Communist view, see Stewart, B., Breaking the fetters (London, 1967), p. 127Google Scholar; Gallacher, W., Last memoirs (London, 1966), p. 170Google Scholar. See also James, R. Rhodes, Churchill: a study in failure 1900–1939 (Harmondsworth, 1973), pp. 191–2Google Scholar.

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133 Advertiser, 8 Apr. 1922.

134 There was a similar brief moment in Lancashire in 1921 when employers and unions came together to protest at Indian import tariffs on British cotton goods: see Chatterji, B., Trade, tariffs and empire: Lancashire and British policy in India (Oxford, 1992), p. 209Google Scholar. In general, the cotton unions seem to have been passive on the issue of Indian competition: Fowler, A., Lancashire cotton operatives and work, 1900–1950 (Aldershot, 2003), pp. 74–107Google Scholar.

135 Cline, E.D. Morel; Mitchell, Politics of dissent, pp. 21, 30; Morel believed that opening up international markets to African farmers was the key to their prosperity.

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139 For example, discussion of municipalization of the milk trade: Courier, 10 Dec. 1918; milk prices: Courier, 3 Aug. 1918 and 17 Sep. 1919; security of supply: Courier, 7 June 1918; costs of distribution: Telegraph, 16 May 1919.

140 Courier, 14 Aug. 1917; Telegraph, 6 Sep. 1917; Courier, 3 Sep. 1918. Scrymgeour was highly active on this issue, being a council member with responsibilities for regulation of the grocery trade.

141 Tomlinson, Dundee and the empire, pp. 103–20.

142 E. Morel to D. Watt, 12 May 1920, LSE Archive, Morel papers, F2 1/7; R. Smillie to E. Morel, 22 Aug. 1920, LSE Archive, Morel papers, F2 1/7.

143 Cline, Strategy of protest, pp. 132, 135.

144 The previous year, Churchill had defended ‘dumping’ of imports in the British market as having a welcome effect on ‘the uneconomic demands of labour’: cited in Trentmann, Free Trade Nation, p. 303.

145 Churchill to Montagu, 19 Dec. 1919, CACCUC, CHAR 2/106/16.

146 AJSM, ‘Report of deputation to London’, 15 Apr. 1919, DUA, MS 84/3/1(2).

147 Clarke, ‘Churchill's economic ideas’, pp. 85–6.

148 Ibid., pp. 93–4.

149 Trentmann, ‘Wealth versus welfare’.