he fortunate possessors of
these incomes and these fortunes to amass the wealth they enjoy or
bequeath? The security insured for property by the agency of the
State, the guaranteed immunity from the risks and destruction of
war, insured by our natural advantages and our defensive forces.
This is an essential element even now in the credit of the country;
and, in the past, it means that we were accumulating great wealth
in this land, when the industrial enterprises of less fortunately
situated countries were not merely at a standstill, but their
resources were being ravaged and destroyed by the havoc of war.

"What, further, is accountable for this growth of wealth? The
spread of intelligence amongst the masses of the people, the
improvements in sanitation and in the general condition of the
people. These have all contributed towards the efficiency of the
people, _even as wealth-producing machines_. Take, for instance,
such legislation as the Educational Acts and the Public Health
Acts; they have cost much money, but they have made infinitely
more. That is true of all legislation which improves the conditions
of life for the people. An educated, well-fed, well-clothed,
well-housed people _invariably leads to the growth of a numerous
well-to-do class_. If _property_ were to grudge a substantial
contribution towards proposals which insure the security which is
one of the essential conditions of its existence or toward keeping
from poverty and privation the old people whose lives of industry
and toil have either created that wealth or made it productive,
then _property_ would be not only shabby, but shortsighted."
(Italics mine.)[49]

The property interests should be far-sighted enough to support the
present economic and labor reforms, not because there is any fear in
Great Britain either from a revolutionary Socialist movement or from an
organized political or labor union upheaval, for Mr. Lloyd George
ridicules both these bogeys, but because such reforms _contribute
towards the efficiency of the people, even as wealth-producing
machines_--and increase the incomes of the wealthy and the well-to-do.

Mr. Lloyd George continued:--

"We have, more especially during the last 60 years, in this country
accumulated wealth to an extent which is almost unparalleled in the
history o