QuotesCosmos
Speech to the Constitutional Club (20 November 1923), quoted in The Times (21 November 1923), p. 17
“

I have read the Liberal programme. They talk of cooperation between employer and employed. That is not the problem. There is no use in cooperating when there is no work to be done. There is no use in imposing capital levies upon a capital which every year dwindles and disappears. ... The problem that awaits the people of this country is to increase the markets within which their goods can find employment, and you will never increase those markets until you have enabled our working people on equal terms and our manufacturers on equal terms to deal with the working people and manufacturers of the world.

— F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I have read the Liberal programme. They talk of cooperation between employer and employed. That is not the problem. There is no use in cooperating when there is no work to be done. There is no use in imposing capital levies upon a capital which every year dwindles and disappears. ... The problem that awaits the people of this country is to increase the markets within which their goods can find employment, and you will never increase those markets until you have enabled our working people on equal terms and our manufacturers on equal terms to deal with the working people and manufacturers of the world." in the context of "Speech to the Constitutional Club (20 November 1923), quoted in The Times (21 November 1923), p. 17" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead#manufacturers#increase#problem#capital#markets#working#equal#terms#cooperation#cooperating#disappears

About F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead

Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, GCSI, PC (12 July 1872 – 30 September 1930) was a British Conservative statesman and lawyer of the early 20th century. He was a skilled orator, noted for his staunch opposition to Irish nationalism, his wit, pugnacious views, and hard living and drinking. He is perhaps best remembered today as Winston Churchill's greatest personal and political friend until Smith's untimely death at age 58.