2110-19-8-3

University of Manitoba

The Service of the State.

I have the privilege today to be addressing an audience largely young, whose hopes in life are not yet dimmed by disappointments, and to whom as to [?] the world is an oyster waiting to be opened. So I am going to offer to you a plea that one consideration should be present when you plan your careers. It is that you should remember that you are not only, but also citizens. It is that in all your schemes some allowance should be made for that supreme duty, a duty second only to that which a man owes to his soul, and which I shall call the service of the State. It is obvious that no nation can be strong unless it can enlist for national purposes the help of its best citizens. You educated young men and women are the cream of this citizenship. It is only if you are willing to give, each in different degrees, thought and work to the welfare of the nation that your country will really achieve that greatness which every patriot desires.

Let me begin by paying a tribute to a certain British tradition. Heaven knows that some of our British traditions are foolish enough! but there is one which has now persisted for more than two centuries, and which has been of incalculable value to us in recent difficult days. That tradition is that the public service is one of the most honourable of all pursuits. It takes many forms. When I was an undergraduate at Oxford some of the ablest men in each year went naturally into the Civil Service; not because of the pecuniary rewards, though these were reasonably adequate at the start; but because of its dignity and interest. I say dignity and interest, for it was

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this, I think, rather than any stern sense of duty, which determined their choice. I am glad to think that this excellent habit still continues. Our home Civil Service is recruited from the ablest men in the Universities. Our Indian and Colonial Services are recruited from the most enterprising. The service of the State has, in the eyes of the ordinary Englishman, a distinction of its own which outweighs the solemn fact that no one will make a fortune in it.

That is one side of the tradition. On the other side, service in Parliament has a notable prestige. A successful business man looks to a seat in the House as the crown of his career. An able young man going to the Bar, in nine cases out of ten, looks forward ultimately to entering Parliament. When I was in the House of Commonds there were at least a score of eldest sons of famous families who had come naturally into the House of Commons, and who worked very hard at their parliamentary duties. That, you will say , is due to the fact that we have a large leisured class whose eldest sons are not compelled to struggle for their daily bread. Yes, but there is more in it than that. Why should a rich young man, with every opportunity for amusement elsewhere, be so ready to devote himself to a calling which has more kicks than ha'pence in it, which is always laborious and often unpleasant? Look at our list of Under-Secretaries in Britain today and you will find among them a very large number of young men who, in other countries, would never dream of undertaking the toil and disappointments of parliamentary life.

No doubt there are baser elements in the tradition. There is personal ambition, for example, which may be much stronger than any sense of public duty. There is a certain tincture of snobbish-

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ness, a desire to be a member of the governing classes. But when all that has been admitted there is something fine and worthy about the instinct, for there is no pecuniary motive in it. The financial rewards held out by the public service in Britain are trivial indeed compared with those of commercial and financial careers. Deep down there is a sound instinct that there is something honourable and fine in serving the State. I do not think it possible to exaggerate the value of this tradition in the Mother Country. It has given us a most competent, single-hearted and clean Civil Service. given us a political life in which we can honestly say that the best brains and character in the nation are represented. It has kept the prestige of our Parliament high at a time when constitutionalism elsewhere in the world has tended to fall into disrepute.

Let me take [ST: handwritten insert A here] an example from another country to which my affections are deeply pledged, the United States of America. After the Civil War, and after Lincoln's death- and remember Lincoln's premature death was the greatest misfortune which ever befell the United States - there came a dark period in American politics. There was a swift advance to economic prosperity, and immense fortunes were made, largely at the expense of the interests of the community. Congress tended to become a machine which able and unscrupulous persons could manipulate to their private advantage. What was the result? In the first place politics got a bad name among decent people. They were supposed, not without reason, to be a dirty business. The high-minded young man withdrew his skirts from them as if from an unclean thing. Therefore they fell largely into the hand of the second and third-rate, and this meant not only that there was an

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inadequate Civil Service, but that parliamentary government justly declined in prestige. Moreover, the immense strides which, during these years, America was making in material prosperity naturally attracted the ablest youth into business. So with this combination, discredited politics and glorified business, it was very difficult to enlist the best talent of the United States in its country's service. A tradition was created definitely hostile to the service of the State.

What has been the result? The time came when "rugged individualism" was no longer possible, when the horizon of individual enterprise, narrowed, and when the immense importance of the State revealed itself with blinding clearness to those who had forgotten all about it. Men turned their eyes to the State, and they found the State machine unready and inadequate, lacking, both in its Civil Service and in its legislative apparatus, the support of all the best talent in the countryh. Well, in United States in recent years has been compelled to improvise a new tradition. She is a great country and I have not a doubt but that she will succeed. But it is not very easy to improvise a tradition. A tradition should be a thing in the warp and woof of the national character. it is by no smooth and facile road that America will attain to full State-consciousness.

I have given you these instances from two great peoples - one of good fortune and one of ill fortune. The moral is that if we neglect the State for our private interests there will most certainly come a day when this neglect will react most seriously upon these private interests. This is not abstract idealism, but a matter of plain business. The well-being of the nation, the honest and effie-

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ient functioning of the governmental machine, is of vital import to every business man, to every professional man, to every citizen. It is of more importance today than ever, because, with our multitude of intricate problems and the inevitable extension of the sphere of State duties, a country's government has become an intimate concern to everybody. We cannot hold ourselves aloof from the State as our grandfathers could. Our choice is not between public and private life, for in a sense there is no more private life. An immense amount of government you must have; the alternatives are government which is confused and corrupt and government which is clean and competent.

I offer these reflections to you younger people, for I think they touch you most closely. Those of you who may follow ordinary business and professional careers I would beg to remember how closely public affairs touch you, and urge you to give them a close and vigilant attention. That is the meaning of democracy - that the whole nation concerns itself with national questions and that thereby an informed public opinion is created which is the true sovereign. To others who may not yet have chosen their calling I would like to say one word on behalf of the direct service of the State. It will not bring you great pecuniary rewards - but in these days of shifting economies it is hard to say what will bring you assured pecuniary rewards! But it will g ive you a life of intense interest, and a proud and honourable calling. And lastly to those who have the instinct and the talent I would urge the importance of a political career. Parliaments today have fallen in repute in many parts of the world, but in our British democracy I do not think that their prestige