Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden

Sourced

• The object of Socialism is not to render the individual capable of living on his personal resources. That is the theory of radical individualism. Its object is to create in him a greater and greater sense of his dependence upon the state, and, at the same time, to inculcate in him the conviction that he is a part of it and that he has a duty and responsibility toward the state; and that only in so far as he fulfils this duty can he benefit by the advantages of a complete personal and social life.
  • On the Insurance Bill (Labour Leader, 14 July, 1911).

• It is no part of my job as Chancellor of the Exchequer to put before the House of Commons proposals for the expenditure of public money. The function of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as I understand it, is to resist all demands for expenditure made by his colleagues and, when he can no longer resist, to limit the concession to the barest point of acceptance.
  • To the House of Commons (30 July 1924, H.C. Deb. Vol. 176, Cols 2091-2.)

• I would like to see the word 'nationalization' banned from the socialist vocabulary.
  • The Daily Herald (15 October, 1928).

• I hope you have read the election programme of the Labour Party...this is not socialism. It is Bolshevism run mad.
  • BBC radio broadcast (17 October, 1931).

About Snowden

• To every outworn shibboleth of 19th-century economics he clung with fanatic tenacity. Economy, Free Trade, Gold - these were the keynotes of his political philosophy, and deflation the path he trod with almost ghoulish enthusiasm.
  • Robert Boothby on Snowden (Robert Rhodes James, Bob Boothby (1991), p. 102)