Budget will show. Let not
that be overlooked. But that is not the only thing; the Budget will do
more than that. It will reveal the financial strength of Britain. At a
time when every European country is borrowing merely for the needs of
ordinary annual expenditure, when all these disturbing naval
programmes, which are injuring the peace of the world and the security
and progress of civilisation, are being supported by borrowed money;
and when the credit of Germany has fallen below that of Italy, this
country, which has necessarily to make the biggest expenditure for
naval defence of any country, will be found, under a Free Trade system
and by our proposals, able not only to pay its way, but to pay off the
debts of the past--to pay off the debts of our predecessors--even in
the worst of times at the rate of something like L7,000,000 a year.

I have spoken to you of the causes which in the past have led up to
this Budget. I have spoken to you of its present justification. What
of the future? If I had to sum up the immediate future of democratic
politics in a single word I should say "Insurance." That is the
future--Insurance against dangers from abroad. Insurance against
dangers scarcely less grave and much more near and constant which
threaten us here at home in our own island. I had the honour and
opportunity a few days ago of explaining to the House of Commons our
proposals for unemployment insurance. That is a considerable matter.
It stands by itself. It is a much simpler question than invalidity
insurance; but it is a great matter by itself. Indeed, I thought while
I was explaining it to the House of Commons that I had not made such
an important speech since I had the honour of explaining the details
of the Transvaal Constitution.

Well, what is the proposal? The proposal is that you should make a
beginning. We have stood still too long. We should begin forthwith,
taking some of the greatest trades of the country in which
unemployment is most serious, in which fluctuations are most severe,
in which there are no short-time arrangements to mitigate the
severity to the individual; and that a system of compulsory
contributory insurance, with a large subvention from the State, should
be introduced into those great industries.

But our proposals go farther than that. The State assistance to
unemployment insurance will not be limited to those trades in which it
is compulsory. Side by side with the compulsory system we s