ABSTRACT
The establishment of a State pledged to secure minimum standards of welfare for all its citizens was a glittering prize indeed for progressive Liberals. On the one hand, carefully handled, it would give the Liberals a strong political advantage over the Conservatives in the battle for the working-class vote; on the other, and infinitely more important to progressives like W. S. Churchill, it spiked the guns of socialism by effecting real social reform and strengthening the security of the State against revolution born of social distress.
