Politics was meat and drink to him and he stood for Parliament. An
ardent Home Ruler, he swayed his followers with such intensity that what
came to be known as Lloyd George's Battle Song sprang into being. Sung
to the American tune of "Marching Through Georgia" it was hailed as the
fighting hymn of Welsh Nationalism. Two lines show where the young Welsh
lawyer stood in his early twenties: they also point his whole future:
"The Grand Young Man will triumph,
Lloyd George will win the day----"
There is something Lincoln-like in the spectacle of his first struggle.
This lowly lad fought the forces of "Squirearchy and Hierarchy." The
Tories hurled at him the anathema that he "had been born in a cottage."
"Ah," replied Lloyd George, when he heard of it: "the Tories have not
realised that the day of the cottage-bred man has dawned."
Before he got through he was destined to show, that so far as
opportunity was concerned, the Cottage in Great Britain was to be on a
par with a Palace.
As you analyse Lloyd George's life you find that he has always been a
sort of Human Lightning Rod that attracted the bolts of abuse. A
campaign meant violent controversy, frequently physical conflict. The
reason was that he always stated his cause so violently as to arouse
bitter resentment.
Into his first election he flung himself with the fury of youth and the
eager passion of a zealot. He threw conventional Liberalism to the wind
and made a fight for a Free and United Wales.
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