Elliott Dodds
Encyclopedia
George Elliott Dodds was a British journalist
, newspaper editor, Liberal
politician and thinker.
, in Kent, the son of a tea merchant. He was educated at Mill Hill School
and New College, Oxford
where he read history. While at Oxford Dodds was editor of Isis magazine
and was narrowly defeated for the presidency of the Union
. After graduating he worked briefly for Herbert Samuel
as his private secretary and tutor to Samuel’s sons. He then went to Jamaica
and taught at Calabar High School
. He returned to England intending to read for the bar
but was drawn instead to journalism accepting the post of leader writer and literary assistant on the Huddersfield Examiner
in 1914. He maintained his connection with the Huddersfield Examiner for sixty years, as editor from 1924–1959 and Consulting Editor after that. During the First World War, Dodds lived in London editing the War Pictorial, a government publication designed to bolster civilian morale.
in 1922
and 1923
, at Halifax
in 1929
and at Rochdale
in 1931
and 1935
. At Rochdale in 1931, Dodds stood in support of the National Government but because of his views on free trade and opposition to tariffs the Conservatives decided to put up their own National candidate thus splitting the anti-Labour vote. Undiscouraged by his defeats, he continued to play a role in the National League of Young Liberals
of which he was president from 1932 to 1937 and to write about Liberalism publishing Liberalism in Action in 1922 and The Social Gospel of Liberalism in 1926.
Dodds’ Liberalism was in the classical liberal tradition, unsympathetic to excessive state intervention in the economy and it put him in broad opposition to the social and industrial policies which the party took up in the 1920s and 1930s in response to the depression and mass unemployment. However he was clever and tribal enough to recognise the electoral value of such policies and politically nimble enough to reconcile it with his own position by placing it in the several strands of liberal thought around which the party needed to coalesce. As Wilson points out, there was a choice for radicals and traditionalists in the party. They could withdraw from politics, they could defect to other parties or they could "allow distrust of Lloyd George to be outweighed by sympathy for the new thought and daring programme he was offering". In 1938 Dodds chaired the party’s ‘Ownership for All’ Committee. Its resulting report reiterated the traditional Liberal position on the role of property ownership as the ‘bedrock of liberty’. The report called for restoration of free trade, reforms of the rating system, and came out against state intervention in the economy except in the most extreme of circumstances. More positively it also promoted co-ownership in industry – a policy with which Dodds became increasingly associated. The report was endorsed by the 1938 Liberal Assembly but was a cause of tension and dispute between the left and right of the party for years.
However Dodds was not one of those Liberals like Arthur Seldon
, Oliver Smedley
, Alfred Suenson-Taylor, 1st Baron Grantchester
or S. W. Alexander
who openly campaigned to build high the edifice of Gladstonian liberalism in the party to ward off the rising floodwater of William Beveridge
and John Maynard Keynes
and who drifted away from mainstream party thinking to the right, into influential think-tanks like the Institute of Economic Affairs
or organisations such as the Society for Individual Freedom
between the 1930s and 1960s. Dodds welcomed the Beveridge Report
and maintained links with the radical wing of the party. In 1953 he became chairman of the Unservile State Group , which aimed to explore the attitudes and policies of British Liberalism for the first time since the publication of the Yellow Book in 1928. It did not seek to promote any particular Liberal brand or establish any new path for the Liberalism but disseminate ideas which were distinctly liberal, reflecting the rich variety of the liberal tradition. In 1957 Dodds wrote in the opening chapter of the book The Unservile State: Essays in Liberty and Welfare that he looked forward to the Liberals ‘re-establish[ing] themselves in their natural position as the acknowledged leaders of the Left...’. He understood that political parties could not stand still writing in his 1947 book The Defence of Man that ‘On the Continent Liberal thought remained hobbled by the dogmas of laissez-faire, and the Liberal parties failed to go forward’.
Dodds was president of the Liberal Party in 1948 and was later elected on a number of occasions as one of the party’s vice-presidents along with such figures as William Beveridge
, Lady Megan Lloyd George, Dingle Foot
and Lady Violet Bonham Carter
.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, newspaper editor, Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician and thinker.
Education and career
Elliott Dodds was born in SydenhamSydenham
Sydenham is an area and electoral ward in the London Borough of Lewisham; although some streets towards Crystal Palace Park, Forest Hill and Penge are outside the ward and in the London Borough of Bromley, and some streets off Sydenham Hill are in the London Borough of Southwark. Sydenham was in...
, in Kent, the son of a tea merchant. He was educated at Mill Hill School
Mill Hill School
Mill Hill School, in Mill Hill, London, is a coeducational independent school for boarding and day pupils aged 13–18. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, an organisation of public schools in the United Kingdom....
and New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
where he read history. While at Oxford Dodds was editor of Isis magazine
Isis magazine
The Isis Magazine was established at Oxford University in 1892 . Traditionally a rival to the student newspaper Cherwell, it was finally acquired by the latter's publishing house, OSPL, in the late 1990s...
and was narrowly defeated for the presidency of the Union
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, Britain, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford...
. After graduating he worked briefly for Herbert Samuel
Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel
Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel GCB OM GBE PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Early years:...
as his private secretary and tutor to Samuel’s sons. He then went to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and taught at Calabar High School
Calabar High School
Calabar High School is an all-male, secondary school in Kingston, Jamaica. It was established by the Jamaica Baptist Union in 1912 for the children of Baptist ministers and the children of the poor blacks and was named after the former slave port Calabar, now in Nigeria...
. He returned to England intending to read for the bar
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
but was drawn instead to journalism accepting the post of leader writer and literary assistant on the Huddersfield Examiner
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
The Huddersfield Daily Examiner is an English local daily evening newspaper covering Huddersfield and its surrounding areas. The first edition was published, as a weekly, on September 6, 1851, as the Huddersfield & Holmfirth Examiner and the newspaper has been published on a daily basis since...
in 1914. He maintained his connection with the Huddersfield Examiner for sixty years, as editor from 1924–1959 and Consulting Editor after that. During the First World War, Dodds lived in London editing the War Pictorial, a government publication designed to bolster civilian morale.
Politics and Liberalism
In 1920 Dodds wrote his first book, Is Liberalism Dead? As far as Dodds’ efforts to enter Parliament were concerned, it seemed it was. He tried without success at YorkCity of York (UK Parliament constituency)
The City of York was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
in 1922
United Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...
and 1923
United Kingdom general election, 1923
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
, at Halifax
Halifax (UK Parliament constituency)
Halifax is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election.- Boundaries :...
in 1929
United Kingdom general election, 1929
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
and at Rochdale
Rochdale (UK Parliament constituency)
Rochdale is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
in 1931
United Kingdom general election, 1931
The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...
and 1935
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...
. At Rochdale in 1931, Dodds stood in support of the National Government but because of his views on free trade and opposition to tariffs the Conservatives decided to put up their own National candidate thus splitting the anti-Labour vote. Undiscouraged by his defeats, he continued to play a role in the National League of Young Liberals
National League of Young Liberals
The National League of Young Liberals , often just called the Young Liberals, was the youth wing of the British Liberal Party. It was founded in 1903 and by 1906 it had over three hundred branches. In 1934 it called for David Lloyd George to lead a Liberal New Deal revival based on the Yellow Book...
of which he was president from 1932 to 1937 and to write about Liberalism publishing Liberalism in Action in 1922 and The Social Gospel of Liberalism in 1926.
Dodds’ Liberalism was in the classical liberal tradition, unsympathetic to excessive state intervention in the economy and it put him in broad opposition to the social and industrial policies which the party took up in the 1920s and 1930s in response to the depression and mass unemployment. However he was clever and tribal enough to recognise the electoral value of such policies and politically nimble enough to reconcile it with his own position by placing it in the several strands of liberal thought around which the party needed to coalesce. As Wilson points out, there was a choice for radicals and traditionalists in the party. They could withdraw from politics, they could defect to other parties or they could "allow distrust of Lloyd George to be outweighed by sympathy for the new thought and daring programme he was offering". In 1938 Dodds chaired the party’s ‘Ownership for All’ Committee. Its resulting report reiterated the traditional Liberal position on the role of property ownership as the ‘bedrock of liberty’. The report called for restoration of free trade, reforms of the rating system, and came out against state intervention in the economy except in the most extreme of circumstances. More positively it also promoted co-ownership in industry – a policy with which Dodds became increasingly associated. The report was endorsed by the 1938 Liberal Assembly but was a cause of tension and dispute between the left and right of the party for years.
However Dodds was not one of those Liberals like Arthur Seldon
Arthur Seldon
Dr Arthur Seldon CBE was joint founder president, with Ralph Harris, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, where he directed academic affairs for 30 years....
, Oliver Smedley
Oliver Smedley
Major Oliver Smedley MC was a British businessman involved in classical liberal politics and pirate radio. He was acquitted of the murder of a business rival on the grounds of self-defence.-Military:...
, Alfred Suenson-Taylor, 1st Baron Grantchester
Alfred Suenson-Taylor, 1st Baron Grantchester
Alfred Jesse Suenson-Taylor, 1st Baron Grantchester , was a British banker and Liberal politician.Born Alfred Jesse Taylor, he was the son of Alfred George Taylor of Stowford, Surrey....
or S. W. Alexander
S. W. Alexander
Stanley Walter Alexander was a British journalist and political activist.-Early life:During the First World War, Alexander served as a Sergeant Major in the Canadian Princess Pat's Light Infantry, as he was unable to join the British forces as his height was only 5'1"...
who openly campaigned to build high the edifice of Gladstonian liberalism in the party to ward off the rising floodwater of William Beveridge
William Beveridge
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge KCB was a British economist and social reformer. He is best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services which served as the basis for the post-World War II welfare state put in place by the Labour government elected in 1945.Lord...
and John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
and who drifted away from mainstream party thinking to the right, into influential think-tanks like the Institute of Economic Affairs
Institute of Economic Affairs
The Institute of Economic Affairs , founded in 1955, styles itself the UK's pre-eminent free-market think-tank. Its mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social...
or organisations such as the Society for Individual Freedom
Society for Individual Freedom
The Society for Individual Freedom is a United Kingdom-based association of libertarians, classical liberals, free-market conservatives and others promoting individual freedom....
between the 1930s and 1960s. Dodds welcomed the Beveridge Report
Beveridge Report
The Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, known commonly as the Beveridge Report was an influential document in the founding of the Welfare State in the United Kingdom...
and maintained links with the radical wing of the party. In 1953 he became chairman of the Unservile State Group , which aimed to explore the attitudes and policies of British Liberalism for the first time since the publication of the Yellow Book in 1928. It did not seek to promote any particular Liberal brand or establish any new path for the Liberalism but disseminate ideas which were distinctly liberal, reflecting the rich variety of the liberal tradition. In 1957 Dodds wrote in the opening chapter of the book The Unservile State: Essays in Liberty and Welfare that he looked forward to the Liberals ‘re-establish[ing] themselves in their natural position as the acknowledged leaders of the Left...’. He understood that political parties could not stand still writing in his 1947 book The Defence of Man that ‘On the Continent Liberal thought remained hobbled by the dogmas of laissez-faire, and the Liberal parties failed to go forward’.
Dodds was president of the Liberal Party in 1948 and was later elected on a number of occasions as one of the party’s vice-presidents along with such figures as William Beveridge
William Beveridge
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge KCB was a British economist and social reformer. He is best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services which served as the basis for the post-World War II welfare state put in place by the Labour government elected in 1945.Lord...
, Lady Megan Lloyd George, Dingle Foot
Dingle Foot
Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot, Q.C. was a British lawyer and politician, born in Plymouth, Devon.-Education and career:...
and Lady Violet Bonham Carter
Violet Bonham Carter
Helen Violet Bonham Carter, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury, DBE was a British politician and diarist. She was the daughter of H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister from 1908-1916, and later became active in Liberal politics herself, being a leading opponent of appeasement, standing for Parliament and being...
.
Family and private life
Dodds married Frances Zita MacDonald, the daughter of a Congregationalist minister of religion, in 1918. They had two daughters. His wife died in 1971. Dodds was a committed Christian serving Highfield Congregationalist Church as a deacon throughout his life and he loved to play golf.Works by Elliott Dodds
- Is Liberalism Dead? – 1920
- Liberalism in Action – 1922
- Ownership for All – 1938
- Let’s Try Liberalism – 1944
- The Defence of Man – 1947
- Liberty and Welfare, in Watson (ed.) The Unservile State – 1957
- The Logic of Liberty (with E. Reiss) - 1966
External links
- Biography of Dodds - Liberal Democrat History Group