The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, spoke as follows: “The question at issue was not one between the two political parties. It was above parties. It was whether there was to be good economical government in the country at all, or whether the Civil Servants in the employment of the Crown could make such use of their votes, as citizens, for the purely selfish purpose of forcing the public to pay more for their services and so increase the expenditure of a great Department of State. He did not know how long they could go on in the position they had now reached, under which pressure was brought to bear on Honorable Members of all parties by their constituents. He was certain that if any scheme could be devised … so that they might take this question altogether out of the region of political life—not merely out of party life, but out of Parliamentary life—it would be a great advantage. It would tend to preserve the Civil Service free from that political influence and independent of the changing fortunes of party which had been their great boast and security in the past. If there were a general feeling in the House that an object of that kind was one on which all parties might well coöperate, then His Majesty’s Government, while maintaining as resolutely as they had in past years their objection to referring these specific grievances to a Select Committee appointed in the ordinary way for that particular purpose, would be prepared to assent to the appointment of a Committee of this House to consider the state of affairs which had arisen; to see if they could devise some remedy for it; to lay down the principles by which they should be governed in these matters; and to advise whether it would be possible to establish some permanent body or Commission, outside the sphere of electoral pressure and above and beyond any of our party conflicts, which might advise the Government in applying those principles to particular cases. Such a Committee could, of course, only be successfully conceded with the good will of all parties in the House, and if the whole House were animated by a desire, if possible, to set this question at rest. With that good-will, he thought, it might serve a useful purpose. The object to be attained was of such vast importance that he, for one, would not refuse any method by which they might hope successfully to compass it and to maintain the Civil Service in that high position of which, with its great traditions, they had such just cause to be proud and such good reason to be grateful for.”[236]
Captain Norton’s motion was lost by a vote of 249 to 205. The House divided on party lines, only two Members of the Opposition voting with the Government, and only nine supporters of the Government voting with the Opposition.[237] Of the Members of the Opposition who voted in support of Captain Norton’s motion, two shortly afterward became members of the Cabinet in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s Liberal Ministry, and fifteen others became members of the Ministry, but not of the Cabinet, or inner circle.[238]
Captain Norton himself became one of the four Junior Lords of the Treasury. The latter functionaries “are expected to gather the greatest number of their own party into every division [of the House of Commons], and by persuasion, promises, explanation, and every available expedient, to bring their men from all quarters to the aid of the Government upon any emergency. It is also their business to conciliate the discontented and doubtful among the ministerial supporters, and to keep every one, as far as possible, in good humor.”[239]
In The Nineteenth Century and After, for April, 1906, Mr. J. H. Heaton, in an article entitled: Wanted! An End to Political Patronage, discussed at length some of the after effects of the memorable debate of July 6, 1905. Mr. Heaton had been returned to Parliament from Canterbury in 1885, 1886, 1892, 1895, and 1900; the last four occasions as an unopposed candidate. He had carried the Imperial Penny Postage Scheme in 1888; he had introduced telegraph money orders in England; the parcel post to France, etc.; and the freedom of the City of London in a gold casket had been conferred on him in 1899.
A Prime Minister on the Civil Service
Mr. Heaton opened his article with the statement: “Many years ago a great Prime Minister wrote to me as follows: ‘There can be no doubt that the organized attempts of servants of the State to use their political influence at the cost of the taxpayer is likely to become a serious danger. I agree with you in thinking that it can only be effectually met by agreement between the two sides of the House.’” Mr. Heaton continued: “The Civil Servants of the Crown are, taken as a whole, an admirable and efficient body of workers, of whom England is justifiably proud, and whom—as was held, I think, by the late Mr. Gladstone—she rewards on a generous scale…. It is the more to be regretted that large classes of them should have fallen into the hands of agitators, who incite to the systematic intimidation of Members of Parliament with a view to the extortion of larger and larger votes [appropriations] for salaries. This evil is rapidly becoming formidable…. Any official raising the cry of ‘higher wages’ is sure of popularity among his fellows, who instantly regard him as a born leader. The pleasant prospect of an increase of income without working for it is a bait that never fails to appeal most strongly to the least energetic and deserving. A postman or dockyard hand finds that he can win promotion and increased pay only by strenuous hard work, just as if he were a mere artisan or shop assistant. But the agitators point out that he can attain an equivalent result by bullying the local M. P., and so he joins the league or union formed for the purpose.”
Sir William Harcourt on Post Office Employees
“Where is this to stop? The late Sir W. Harcourt[240] wrote (to me) that the demands of the Postal employees reached a depth, or abyss, which no plummet would fathom. We know now that they claim the Postal surplus, which amounts to nearly five millions [sterling]…. There are 192,000 of them, and of these probably 100,000 have votes. Adding these to the dockyard, arsenal, and stores factory hands, and other Government employees, we have a political force that may turn the scale at a General Election. Candidates are tempted to bid against one another with the taxpayer’s money. ‘Let us be charitable!’ said Sydney Smith, and put his hand into a bystander’s pocket. Our legislators were proof against the hectoring of the Tudors, the violence of the Stuarts, and the blandishments of the Georges; surely they will never yield to the menaces of demagogues.”