Social Trends in Britain during the 1920s

Comparisons

The war did not have the same negative social impact on Britain as it did in other countries. For example, ex-service men did not organise themselves into paramilitary groups dedicated to radical programmes of social change; they joined the British Legion, headed by Lord Haig, instead, and this "brought all ranks together on a more or less democratic basis".

There were some permanent marks brought about by the war, but these seem trivial in comparison to effects of the war in other European countries. Thus, summer time was retained, and the restrictions on the opening hours of public houses during the afternoons were kept on. Passports and immigration control were retained.

There was a return to some kind of normality within Britain in 1922. Working days lost due to strikes in 1921 was 85 million, but in 1922 this fell to 19 million. Income tax was reduced from 30% to 25%; there was a fall in prices and wage rates; most of the wartime restrictions were progressively removed during 1921.

Demographic trends

Whilst the population of Great Britain continued to increase, there was a slowdown in its rate of growth. The population increase of the C19th was due to the decline in the death rate, owing to the improvement in medical care and knowledge, and better housing and hygiene. As a result, for example, infant mortality rates in the 1920s were half those of 1900. Deaths from infectious diseases declined, and proportionately more people died from degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and cancer. Life expectancy had not significantly increased and remained at 65. The slow-down in the rate of population growth was due mainly to the decline in the birth rate — falling to below 20 per thousand in 1923. This was due to the increased use of contraceptives. Declining birth rates first appeared in the 1880s among the middle-classes. Given the lack of knowledge of and restrictions upon the use of contraceptives at the time, it seems that middle-class couples simply abstained from sex during that period. It was the war that made men aware of the contraceptive sheath, and contraceptive methods were publicised thereafter by such works as Dr. Marie Stopes's book, Married Love.

During the 1920s the temporary excess of women over men was at its greatest — there were 1.75 million more women than men at this time. It probably contributed to the emancipation of women. From 1918 onwards they had the vote, though it was not until 1928 that the qualifications to vote were the same as those of men. As a result of the Sex Disqualification Removal Act many legal impediments to gainful employment imposed on women were removed — and they could join most professions, except the Church and the stock exchange. They could take degrees at university. However, the dependency of most women on the male breadwinner still continued for the most part, and there were few women at the very top of society — never more than 20 women MPs for example, and no women judges and very few women university professors.

Another social trend of this period was the movement of the population from the centres of town into the suburbs, with a consequent decline of industrial towns.

Class

England remained a society divided by class, and if anything, the distinctions between the classes increased during this period. England was the only European country where accent continued to divide people on the basis of class, and education also divided classes from one another. The education act of 1918 made it compulsory for all children to be educated up to 14, but this also cemented the distinction between the two systems of education: mass education for the lower classes to 14 in free day schools; boarding school education for the children of the upper classes until 13, followed by further boarding at expensive public schools.

The monstrously uneven division of wealth continued; 2/3rd of the wealth of the country remained in the ownership of 1% of the population! Over 75% of the population had less than £100 wealth. The ruling elite was drawn mainly from a few hereditary families, most of whom went to either Eton or Harrow, and then on to Oxford or Cambridge. However, there were some changes: The rich, though still rich, became less idle. Members of the upper classes increasingly worked in finance or industry, and the distinction within the upper classes between landowners and capitalists declined. This also accounts for the decline of the Liberal party, since they had represented the capitalist class in opposition to landed wealth. The Conservatives came increasingly to represent the ruling classes as a whole. The working classes were also easily identifiable, and more homogeneous as a group.

Nonetheless, in some other ways, class distinctions were being eroded. Clothing, for example, became more uniform, and the use of the 'lounge suit' for work became more common-place; very few men wore top hat and tails to go to work. Women's clothing also became more uniform. The increase in the habit of smoking also introduced a uniformity between the classes; the cigarette was now made from Virginian rather than Egyptian or Turkish tobacco. The embourgeoisement of the working classes increased with the increased numbers of white-collar workers; between 1911 and 1921 the number of salaried (i.e white collar workers) in private employment rose from 1 to 2.75 million, and there were increases in the number of civil servants in national and local administration.

There was a decline in the employment of domestic servants. The numbers of servants in households was generally reduced, and middle class families that used to have one servant started to employ a daily woman instead. Thus, whilst class divisions remained, there was less passion in the class war.

Nonetheless, the upper classes remained anxious at the time, and were preoccupied with the security of the system. One example of this was the transformation of the Special Irish Branch at Scotland Yard into simple the Special Branch and continued to tap telephones and interfere with mail in the name of fighting communism. This was ridiculous given the minimal influence of communists within Britain — only once did the Communist party have more than 10,000 members, and that was immediately after the general strike of 1926. Authors that had once been radicals and critics of society took to defending it — John Galsworthy is a worthy example; and even Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells became established figures.

Education

The question of the caste system in education was never addressed during the inter-war period, and the only part of the curriculum to receive scrutiny was religious instruction.

One positive development in education was that the state became more involved in university funding. The University Grants Committee was established, which distributed a grant made to the universities by the Treasury; however, it had no independent policy and the universities remained autonomous.

Changes in taxation

Direct taxation as a means of raising government finance became more important. By 1922 49% of government revenues came from direct taxation, as opposed to 33% before the war. The effect of this was to transfer some wealth from the rich to the poor — it has been estimated that the interwar period led to a transfer of 5% of the national income from the rich to the poor; however, given the advantages of the rich, they were really the group that benefited most. Whilst real wages were 11% higher in the period after the war than before it, the increased spending power of the manual classes also created greater profits.

Voluntary work and patronage

There continued to be a dependency on voluntary work at the highest levels of power: members of the house of commons received only a subsistence wage; most magistrates and all county and town councillors were unpaid. The power of voluntary societies, protecting the interests of animals and children, for example, continued. This voluntary work, which could, of course, only be undertaken by privileged members of society, was rewarded by the honours system. A new honour, the Order of the British Empire, was used to reward such people. Thus patronage continued to be as important in British society as it had been in the C18th, but honours were given, not money. The prime minister held a great power of patronage: he appointed all bishops and some professors. Justices of the peace were the nominees of the local political parties; and high court judges were often drawn from the ranks of the Conservative backbenches. Conformists were generally rewarded. However, such men were generally highly conscious of their duties towards society, and wanted to improve their society, and were concerned about the conditions of the masses.

Decline in church attendance

There was a decline in church attendance. The Christian faith in England was divided into three groups: The Established Church of England (2.75 million); Roman Catholics (2.5 million); Dissenters (or Noncomformists) of the Free Churches (2 million). There was a decline of conflict between these groups, and only the Catholics objected to marriage between members of different churches. There was a decline of attendance, and a smaller and smaller minority of the population accepted in full the dogmas of revealed religion such as the belief in the Incarnation of Christ, that Christ was the son of God; The Trinity, that God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one person; and the Resurrection, that Jesus rose from the tomb after Crucifixion and in so doing cleansed mankind of the original sin incurred in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve partook of the apple of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. People tended from this time onwards to look upon Christ only as a supreme exemplar of a good man. The decline in religious faith was best resisted among the Roman Catholics, who were reinforced by Irish immigrants. The Church of England did second best, since they were the Established Church and had a near monopoly on baptisms, marriages and deaths. It was the Free Churches that experienced the greatest decline and their influence faded as belief declined. However, England remained Christian in morality, though not in faith.

Sexual Morality

People said that sexual morality was laxer, but there is no serious evidence for this. Divorce was still difficult, and divorcees of either sex found it hard to be accepted in society, and especially at the top. The Conservative party remained opposed to divorce until the end of the Second World War.

The Arts

The continental revolutions in art, represented by such figures as Picasso, Stravinsky, and the Futurists, had little impact on British society; there was little change in architecture, and the decaying Imperial style remained popular. In music there was also a drift towards conservativism; Delius, Holst and Vaughan Williams were not as challenging as Elgar; William Walton was more daring. In literature, there was a flowering, and T.S. Eliot, James Joyce are great by international standards. However, their work had little impact on British society, and was incomprehensible by the majority. D.H. Lawrence was great but uninfluential. Auldous Huxley attempted a reconciliation between art and science. Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh were influenced by their Roman Catholicism. Though English literature at this time was in a sense great, it had little impact on society.

For the lower classes cinema provided a new form of entertainment. Popular literature, exemplified by the stories of Nat Gould or Edgar Wallace, was uninspired, and the theatre and music hall were in decline. The cinema was dominated by Hollywood, and whilst the greatest artist produced by the screen was an English cockney, Charlie Chaplin, the British film industry was destroyed by the war.

Intellectual thinking was also stagnant; economists, for example, had barely progressed beyond Adam Smith, and there was a general commitment still to the principles of laissez-faire economics. There was a slight change of emphasis — the benefits of profits would go to society as a whole rather than to individuals, but the underlying principles were the same. Such economists were unable to explain the decline of Britain's traditional export industries.

Newspapers

Northcliffe died in August 1922. He can be credited with the creation of the modern newspaper, and the move away from merely presenting information to presenting it in interesting ways. Because his papers made a profit, he can also be credited with the creation of a press that was not subject to government or party influence. Northcliffe gave England the gift of a free press, and journalists also benefited from greater security and better pay. Northcliffe's brother, Rothermere, inherited the papers.