J. KEIR HARDIE
Copyright
J. KEIR HARDIE, 1914
J. KEIR HARDIE
A Biography
By
WILLIAM STEWART
With an Introduction by
J. RAMSAY MACDONALD
CASSELL & COMPANY, LTD.
LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO, AND MELBOURNE
FIRST PUBLISHED OCTOBER, 1921.
Printed at the London Works of
THE NATIONAL LABOUR PRESS. LIMITED,
8, 9, 10 Johnson'3 Court, Fleet Street, EC, 4.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
THE one man of all Keir Hardie's associates
most fitted to write an account of his life and
work was the late /. Bruce Glasier. His know-
ledge of the Labour and Socialist movement in all its
phases and aspects, his long and close intimacy with
Hardie both in public and private life, his sympathetic
perception of the motives and environment and heredity
which went to the formation of Hardie' s character, and
influenced his actions, and his own fine gift of literary
expression, qualified him above all others to be Keir
Hardie' s biographer.
The Fates ruled otherwise. Before Mr. Glasier had
begun to collect and assort the material for the work, he
was himself stricken with the illness, which, heroically
borne through two years of pain, ended in his death. It
was at Mr. Glasier' s request while on his bed of sickness
that I , not very confidently, undertook the work. 7'he
Memorial Committee adopted Mr. Glasief s suggestion
that I should be appointed to take his place. The work
therefore came to me both as a request and as a com-
mand. I have performed it to the best of my ability ;
whether well or ill, must be left to the judgment of others.
To those friends who were most familiar with Keir
Hardie' s habits of life it will be unnecessary to explain
that the task has not been quite easy. Thoiigh he had the
intention of some day writing a book of reminiscences,
the daily call of the Labour and Socialist movement left
him without any leisiire to sit down to it systematically,
vii
45S648
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
and when he died he had not even made that provision
for posthumous fame which seems customary with per-
sons who have figured in public life. He kept no diary,
and he preserved few letters, though he must have
received many from important people. If it be true,
as has been said, that letters are the raw material of
biography, this particular biography has been produced
at a disadvantage. That is not entirely true, however.
Mzich of the material for a life of Hardie is to be found
not in his private but in his public writings which were
voluminous, and, to a considerable extent, self -revealing.
But the very wealth and abundance of this kind of
material have rendered the work difficult if interesting.
I found it necessary to go through with some selective
care the two volumes of "The Miner" twenty-one
volumes of the "Labour Leader" several volumes of
the "Merthyr Pioneer" and also to refer to other
Socialist papers, to the columns of the contemporary
daily press, and to the pages of "Hansard"
There will be differences of opinion as to whether
this material has always been used in the best way, and
also as to whether certain events and episodes have been
over or under emphasised. These differences cannot be
helped. I had to use my own judgment and have done
so, and the result must stand.
For information concerning the early period of Keir
Hardie' s life I am indebted to several members of the
family, especially to his brothers, George, David and
William. Mrs. Keir Hardie also was most helpful in
supplying those domestic details which seemed necessary,
while for some of the early Ayrshire experiences I have
to thank Councillor James Neil of Ciimnock, and
viii
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
several quite obscure but sterling men of the pits who
were associated with Hardie in his scantily recorded
pioneering days.
For an account of the historic Mid-Lanark election
there was a fair amount of information available, though
it had to be dug out. Not so, however, with regard to
the West Ham election, and I have specially to thank
Councillor Ben Gardner for his valuable help in this
connection. There is a probability that he, and also the
many Merthyr friends, notably Llewellyn Francis, John
Ban, Councillor Stonelake and Emrys Hughes, may
think I have not made the fullest use of the very valuable
information which they placed at my disposal. They
will, however, I have no doubt, realise that I had to be
governed by a sense of proportion, and had to consider
each phase of Hardie' s life in its relation to his whole
career.
I do sincerely believe, however, that the book as it
stands contains nearly all that is essential to a trite
understanding of ^the character of Keir Hardie and of
his life work; and thereby makes it possible for readers
to form a just estimate of the great service which he
rendered to the working people, not of his own country
only, but of the world, and therefore to Humanity.
WILLIAM STEWART.
September yth, 1921 .
IX
CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION by J. RAMSAY MACDONALD xv
Chapter
1 . THE MAKING OF AN AGITATOR i
2. JOURNALIST AND LABOUR ORGANISER "THE MINER" 17
3. MID-LANARK THE SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY THE
SOCIALIST MOVEMENT 35
4. THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL WEST HAM THE I.L.P.
PARLIAMENT 58
5. STANDING ALONE THE MEMBER FOR THE UNEMPLOYED 85
6. A GENERAL ELECTION AMERICA INDUSTRIAL STRIFE 105
7. SOUTH AFRICAN WAR THE L.R.C. MERTHYR TYDVIL 143
8. PARLIAMENT ONCE MORE "THE WHITE HERALD"
SERIOUS ILLNESS 173
9. THE CLASS WAR IN THEORY AND PRACTICE . . . 208
10. THE PARLIAMENTARY LABOUR PARTY PHYSICAL BREAK-
DOWN ROUND THE WORLD . . . . .221
1 1. FOREIGN POLICY THE KING'S GARDEN PARTY ATTACKS
FROM WITHIN AND WITHOUT 260
12. Two GENERAL ELECTIONS INDUSTRIAL TURMOIL THE
BRINK OF WAR 290
13. SOUTH AFRICA AND IRELAND COMING-OF-AGE CONFER-
ENCE ARMAGEDDON 326
14. THE LAST YEAR 350
CHRONOLOGY . . . . . . . .376
INDEX 379
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
J. KEIR HARDIE, 1914, from a photograph 'by
Walter Scott Frontispiece
To face page.
J. KEIR HARDIE, 1893 100
J. KEIR HARDIE IN HIS ROOM AT NEVILL'S COURT, LONDON,
from a photograph by Alfred Barrett , . . .196
J. KEIR HARDIE, 1910, from a photograph by Annan and
Sons ......... 306
INTRODUCTION
THE purposes of biography are manifold, but
they have this common end : to interpret the
subject and show forth what manner of man he
was of whom the writer writes. That done faithfully,
the biographer can launch his work upon the waters and
trust to the winds and the currents for a prosperous
voyage.
But what is "faithfully"? A patient and accurate
accumulation of facts and events strung upon time as
boys used to hang rows of birds' eggs upon strings ? A
cold, impartial scrutiny of a life made from a judgment
seat placed above the baffling conflicts of doubting
conscience, groping reason and weak desire?
Biographies may be so written. But the life of him who
has stood in the market place with a mission to his
fellows, who has sought to bring visions of greater
dignity and power into the minds of the sleeping and
vegetating crowds, who has tried to gather scattered and
indifferent men into a mighty movement and to elevate
discontented kickings against the pricks into a crusade
for the conquest of some Holy Land, cannot be dealt
with in that way. He must submit to the rigid scrutiny;
the dross that is in him, the mistakes and miscalculations
which he made, must be exposed with his virtues,
wisdoms and good qualities. But to portray such a
man, the biographer has not only to scrutinise him
objectively; he must also tell how he appeared to, and
was felt by, the people who were influenced by him, and
preserve for the future the hero or the saint who received
the homage of leadership and the worship of affection.
The glamour of the myth gathers round all great popular
xv
J. KEIR HARDIE
leaders and becomes an atmosphere as real to their
personality as the colour of cloud and sun is real to a
landscape. Were we to separate what is inseparable, we
might say that such a man has two beings, that which
the critic alone can see, dissecting him as though he
lay a lifeless thing upon a table, and that which the
artist sees regarding him as one of the living formative
forces of his time.
In the latter way the biography of Keir Hardie must
be treated if it is to be a full interpretation of the man.
Mr. Stewart, who has done this book, writes of his hero,
frankly and unashamedly, as a worshipper. He is a
disciple who for many years has enjoyed the intimacy of
his master, and he sees with the eye and writes with the
pen which reveal the inspiring leader to us. He has
gathered from a great mass of details the outstanding
incidents in Hardie's life, and through the deeds has
shown the man. He has also preserved for all who may
read his book, and especially for those in whose
memories those precious days of pioneering have no
place, the inspiration that made the work possible and
brought forth from chaos the Labour Movement.
Everyone who came in contact with Hardie felt his
personality right away at the outset. His power never
lay in his being at the head of a political organisation
which he commanded, for the organisation of the Inde-
pendent Labour Party was always weak compared with
its influence, and he had ceased to be an official of the
miners before their combination became really formid-
able; nor did it lie in his ability to sway the crowd by
divine gifts of speech and appeal, for his diction though
beautifully simple was rarely tempestuous, and his voice
had few of the qualities that steal into the hearts of men
and stir them in their heights and depths; more certainly
still he never secured a follower by flattery nor won the
xvi
INTRODUCTION
ear of a crowd by playing down to it. He set a hard task
before his people and gave them great ends to pursue.
He left no man in peace in the valley gutter, but winded
them on the mountain tracks. What then was the
secret of the man ? I who have seen him in all relation-
ships, at the height of triumph an3 the depths of
humiliation, on the platform and at the fireside, dignified
amongst strangers and merry amongst friends,
generally fighting by his side but sometimes in conflict
with him, regard that secret as first of all his personality
and then his proud esteem for the common folk and his
utter blindness to all the decorations of humanity. He
was a simple man, a strong man, a gritty man.
Hardie was of the "old folk." Born in a corner of
Scotland where there still lingered a belief in the
uncanny and the superhuman, where Pan's pipes were
still heard in the woods, the kelpie still seen at the fords
and the fairy still met with on the hills, and born in the
time of transition when the heart and imagination paid
homage whilst the reason was venturing to laugh, he went
out into the world with a listening- awe in his soul;
brought up in surroundings eloquent with the memory
of sturdy men who trusted to the mists to shield them
from the murderous eyes of the Claverhouses and their
dragoons, and dotted with the graves and the monuments
of martyrs to a faith dreary moors "where about the
graves of the martyrs the whaups are crying/' and grey
farmhouses where in the "killing times" women
lamented over their husbands and sons murdered at
their doors for loyalty to God and the Covenant-
surroundings, moreover, which in later times had seen
Burns at the plough dejected, and had heard him singing
his songs of love, of pity, of gaiety, he went out a strong
man in heart and in backbone, with the spirit of great
tradition in him; nurtured by a mother who faced trip
B xvii
J. KEIR HARDIE
hard world like a woman of unconquerable soul, whose
tears were followed by defiance and whose sighs ended
with challenge, he went out like a knight arme'd with a
sword which had the magic of conquest tempering its
steel. That was his birthright, and that birthright
made him a gentleman, whether running errands for a
baker in Glasgow, or facing the "overfed beasts" on the
benches of the House of Commons. Such men never
fear the face of men and never respect their baubles.
From the same sources came his comfort in the
common folk. All great human discovery is the
discovery of the wisdom that comes from babes and
sucklings, as all great artistic achievement depends on
the joy that dwells in the simple. It has been said that
there is the false ring of peevishness in Burns' "A man's
a man for a* that," and it may be that resentment gives
a falsetto note to some of the lines. But when the great
labour leader comes, whether he be born from the
people or not will be of little concern, the decisive thing
will be whether he values in his heart, as Burns did,
the scenes and the people from which spring not only
"Scotia's grandeur," but the power which is to purify
society and expose the falseness and the vulgarity of
materialist possession and class distinctions. The mind
of the labour leader must be too rich to do homage to
"tinsel show," too proud of its own lineage to make
obeisance to false honour, and too cultured to be misled
by vulgar display.
A title, Dempster merits it;
A gfarter gie to Willie Pitt ;
Gie wealth to some be-ledgtr'd cit,
In cent, per] cent.
But give me real sterling- wit,
And I'm content.
A working class living in moral and social parasitism
on its "betters" will only increase the barrenness and
xvin
INTRODUCTION
the futility of life. In the end, it is perhaps a matter of
good taste and self-respect, and these are birthrights
and are not taught in the schools. They belong to the
influences which life assimilates as plants assimilate a
rich or an impoverished air and sap. Perhaps the Scots-
man is peculiarly fortunate in this respect. No country
has had a meaner aristocracy or a sturdier common
people. Partly its education, partly its history, partly
its church government and system of worship, partly the
frugality which nature imposed upon it for so many
generations, laid up a store of independence in the
characters of many of its people, and Burns awoke this
into activity. I doubt if any man who received the
historical birthright of Scotsmen at his birth, ever
accepted a tinsel honour without feeling that he was
doing wrong and somehow abandoning his country.
Be these things as they may, Hardie had those native
qualities which never became incompetent to value the
honour and the worth of a kitchen fireside, of a woman
who, like his mother, toiled in the fields, of a man who
earned his living by the sweat of his brow, subduing
Heaven the while. He said a life-long Amen to the
Words which Scott puts in the mouth of Rob Roy on
Glasgow bridge: "He that is without name, without
friends, without coin, without country, is still at least a
man; and he that has all these is no more" Hardie J s
democratic spirit might have added "and is often some-
thing less.'* When he became famous, his world
widened and he mixed with people in different circum-
stances. But he met them as the self-respecting
workman, all unconscious of difference and with neither
an attempt nor a desire to imitate them. The drawing-
rooms of the rich never allured him into a syco-
phantic servitude, a chair at a workman's fireside
hard to sit upon never robbed that fireside of its
xix
J. K'EIR HARDIE
cheery warmth. The true gentleman is he who acts
like a gentleman unconsciously. Therefore, this
quality eludes him who would write of it, for an
explanation of it suggests consciousness of it. Only
when the ruling class habits sought to impose themselves
on him by authority did he resent them and become
conscious of his own nature as when he went to the
House of Commons in a cloth cap, or when, in an out-
burst of moral loathing, he replied to the jeers of a
band who had returned to the House radiant in
the garb and the demeanour of those who had risen from
a well replenished table, by the epithet ''well-fed
beasts/' and then his native good taste speedily
asserted itself and he became natural.
Experience in the world strengthened this part of his
nature. Whether as a baker's messenger forced to pass
moral judgment on the man of substantial respecta-
bility, or as a Trade Union official studying the results
of the work of directors, managers and such like, or as
a politician in touch with the political intelligence and
general capacity of "the ruling classes/' he saw no
inferiority in his fellow workmen. He found them
careless, disorganised, indifferent; but their lives
remained real and their common interests were the true
interests. They were the robust stem upon which
every desirable thing had to be engrafted.
Thus it was that the sober people, the people prepared
for idealistic effort, the people whose ears detected the
ring of a genuine coin and had become tired of the
spurious or ill-minted thing, the people who were laying
the foundations of their new cities on the rock of human
worth, were drawn to him, honoured him, believed in
him and loved him. It is very difficult for a man made
of that material to do justice to "the classes" in these
times to their qualities, their lives, their interests, and
xx
INTRODUCTION
even their worship but Hardie was catholic, and rarely
have his friends heard from his lips an unjust con-
demnation of those people. Charity lay even in his
most emphatic condemnations.
Of Hardie's work it is easy to judge even at this early
day, so distinctive was it. He will stand out for ever
as the Moses who led the children of labour in this
country out of bondage out of bondage, not into
Canaan, for that is to be a longer job. Others had
described that bondage, had explained it, had told what
ought to come after it. Hardie found the labour
movement on its industrial side narrowed to a conflict
with employers, and totally unaware that that conflict,
if successful, could only issue in a new economic order;
on its political side, he found it thinking only of returning
to Parliament men who came from the pits and work-
shops to do pretty much the same work that the
politicians belonging to the old political parties had
done, and totally unaware that Labour in politics must
have a new outlook, a new driving force of ideas and a
new standard of political effort. When he raised the
flag of revolt in Mid-Lanark, he was a rebel proclaiming
civil war; when he fought the old Trade Union leaders
from the floor of Congress, he was a sectary; when the
Independent Labour Party was formed in Bradford, it
was almost a forlorn hope attacked by a section
of Socialists on the one hand and by the labour leaders
in power on the other. What days of fighting, of
murmuring, of dreary desert trudging were to follow,
only those who went through them know. Through
them, a mere handful of men and women sustained the
drudgery and the buffetings. Hardie's dogged even
dour persistence made faint-heartedness impossible.
One has to think of some of those miraculous endurances
of the men who defied hardship in the blank wilderness,
xxi
J. KEIR HARDIE
the entangled forest, the endless snowfield, to get an
understanding of the exhaustion of soul and mind and
body which had to be undergone between 1890 and 1900,
in order to create a Labour Movement.
For this endurance Hardie had an inexhaustible
inner resource. He knew
The hills where his life rose,
And the sea where it goes.
He was one of the sternest champions which his class
has ever produced, and yet his was no class mind. His
driving and resisting power was not hate nor any of the
feelings that belong to that category of impulse. When
I used the expression ''communal consciousness," for
the first time in a book I had written, as the antithesis to
"class consciousness," which some Socialists regarded
as the shibboleth test of rectitude, he wrote me saying
that that was exactly what he felt. But even that was
not comprehensive enough. His life of sense was but
the manifestations of the spirit, and to him "the spirit"
was something like what it was to the men whose bones
lay on the Ayrshire moors under martyrs' monuments.
It was the grand crowned authority of life, but an
authority that spoke from behind a veil, that revealed
itself in mysterious things both to man's heart and eyes.
He used to tell us tales and confess to beliefs, in words
that seemed to fall from the lips of a child. Had he not
found his portion where blows had to be given and to be
fended, and where the mind had to be actively wary
every moment of the day in advancing and retreating,
he would have been one of an old time to whom a
belief in mystic signs and warnings would have been
reverence and not superstition, and by whom such signs
would have been given. Those who knew him have
often met him looking as though a part of him were
absent in some excursion in lands now barred to most of
xxii
INTRODUCTION
mankind. This, I believe, explains the hospitality he
always gave to every new attempt to express the truth,
explains his devotion to the cause of women as it was in
his lifetime and, above all, explains the mysterious
affinity there was between himself and children. His
whole being lay under the shadow of the hand of the
crowned Authority which told him of its presence now
by a lightning flash, now by a whisper, and now by a
mere tremor in his soul like what the old folk believed
went through the earth when night died and the day was
born. The world was life, not things, to him.
Thus, his Socialism was not an economic doctrine, not
a formula proved and expressed in algebraic signs of x
and y. He got more Socialism from Burns than from
Marx; "The Twa Dogs," and "A Man's a Man for a'
that," were more prolific text books for his politics than
"Das Kapital." This being the spirit of his handiwork,
the Independent Labour Party, is one reason why it
became the greatest political influence of our time and
threw into an almost negligible background, both in its
enthusiastic propaganda and practical capacity, all other;
Socialist bodies in this country.
The inconsistencies which are essential attributes of
human greatness are the cause of much trouble to the
ordinary man, but these inconsistencies do not belong
to the same order of things as the unreliabilities of the
charlatan or the changefulness of the time-server.
Hardie's apparent waywardness often gave his ccj-
leagues concern. He was responsive to every move-
ment and hospitable to the most childlike thoughts
so much so that in a battle he not infrequently seemed
to be almost in the opposing ranks, as at that Derby
Conference, described by Mr. Stewart, when he sorely
tried the loyalty of our own women by going out of his
way to greet those who had done everything in their
xxiii
J. KEIR HARDIE
power to harass and insult them. A great man has so
many sides to which the various voices of the day make
appeal. He is not only one man but several not only
man, but woman too. But greatness is inconsistent only
in the things that do not matter very much, and in the
grand conflict of great issues he stood up as reliable as
a mighty boulder in a torrent. The strength of hills
was his for exactly the same reason as he had the trustful
mind of a child. What appeared to be inconsistency was
indeed manysidedness. No man was more generously
international in his outlook and spirit, and yet to the very
core of his being he was a Scotsman of Scotsmen, and it is
not at all inappropriate that I came across him first of all
at a meeting to demand Home Rule for Scotland. A
man who held in no special esteem the ''book lear" of
universities, he, nevertheless, warmed in interest to all
kinds of lore, and he read choicely and was ever ready
to sit at the feet of whomsoever had knowledge to impart.
Always willing to listen, he was never ready to yield;
loyal like a man, he was, nevertheless, persistent in his
own way sometimes to a fault; humble in the councils of
friends, he was proud in the world. Looking back at him
now, the memory of his waywardness only adds to
affection and admiration. One sees how necessary it
was for his work.
There is one other inconsistency of greatness which
he showed only to friends. He could stand alone, and
yet he could not. "No one can ever know," he once
said to me, "what suffering a man has to endure by mis-
representation." He required a corner in the hearts of
his people where he could rest and be soothed by regard.
He therefore felt keenly every attack that was crudely
cruel. For instance he was sorely struck by the brutally
vile cartoon which "Punch" published of him when he
was in India. (I knew of the letters which Lord Minto
xxiv
INTRODUCTION
was sending home expressing pleasure at his conduct
in India, and I cheered him by telling him of them.)
But sorest of all was the wound which the war made
upon him. Like every intelligent man who kept his head,
he saw that the most worthless elements in the country
would ride the whirlwind, that the people would be
worked up into a state of mind that would not only defy
every appeal to reason, but would prolong the agony
and settle it, as all wars have hitherto been settled, by
crushing debts, ruined ideals and a peace which would
only be a truce to give time for the sowing of new seeds
of war. He knew that when the clash came it could
not be ended until the conditions of a settlement arose,
and he joined heartily with the small group in the
country who took the view that those conditions were
political and not military, and that, therefore, whilst the
soldier was holding the trenches, the politician should be
as busy as the munition worker creating the political
weapons which were to bring peace. He also knew
that, when the war comes, the safety of every country is
endangered by its enemy and that adequate steps must be
taken to protect it. But he saw that problem in its
fulness and not with military blinkers limiting his vision
to recruitment, guns and poison gas. He was quite
well aware that the sky would speedily be darkened by
black clouds of lies and misrepresentations, innocent and
deliberate. That was in the day's work, and he knew
that in time the attitude of his colleagues and himself
would first of all be understood and that, later on, people
would wonder why it took them so long to see the same
things. He saw the Treaty of Versailles before 1915
was very far spent, and he was content to endure and
wait. That is not how he was wounded. The
deadly blow was given by the attitude of old colleagues.
When he returned from his first meeting in his
xxv
J. KEIR HARDIE
constituency on the outbreak of war, described by
Mr. Stewart, he was a crushed man, and, sitting in the
sun on the terrace of the House of Commons where I
came across him, he seemed to be looking out on blank
desolation. From that he never recovered. Then
followed the complete mergence of the Labour Party
in the war-lusty crowd. The Independent Labour
Party kept as trusty as ever, but he felt that his work was
over, that all he could do in his lifetime was to amount
to no more than picking up some of the broken spars of
the wreckage. As Bunyan puts it, "a post had come
from the celestial city for him/ 5 And so he died.
The outlook has already changed. The floods are
subsiding and his work stands. We are still too near
to that work to see it in its detailed historical relations; the
day and its events are too pressingly close and urgent to
enable us to view the results of it in a lasting setting. Of
this we are assured, however : in its great purposes and
general achievements it is permanent. It is well with
him and his memory.
"I shall be satisfied when I awake."
J. RAMSAY MACDONALD.
xxvi
J. KEIR HARDIE
J. KEIR HARDIE
CHAPTER ONE
THE MAKING OF AN AGITATOR
JAMES KEIR HARDIE was born on August
1856, in a one-roomed house at Legbrannock, near
Holytown in Lanarkshire, amongst the miners, of
whom he was to become one, and with whose interests
he was to be closely identified all through life.
His father, David Hardie, was not, however, a miner,
nor of miner stock. He was a ship carpenter by trade,
drawn into this district by the attractions of Mary Keir,
a domestic servant, who became his wife and the mother
of the future labour agitator. Both parents were
endowed with strong individuality of character, of a kind
not calculated to make life smooth for themselves or
their offspring; but it was undoubtedly from the mother
that the boy inherited that resourcefulness and power of
endurance which enabled him, through a full half-
century of unceasing strife, to develop and, in some
measure, realise those ideals of working-class inde-
pendence and organisation with which his name is
associated.
Not much is known of Keir Hardie's years of infancy,
but that they were not overflowing with joy may be
surmised from the fact that in his eighth year we find the
J. KEIR HARDIE
family increased in numbers living in the ship-
building district of Glasgow in very straightened
circumstances even for working folk.
Latterly, the father had been following his trade at
sea, but was now trying to settle down to work in the
shipyards, not an easy thing to do at a time when trade
was dull and employment scarce. This may account for
the fact that the home was, now on the Govan side, now
on the Partick side, and never got itself really established
as a steady going working-class household. A brief
period of regular employment was broken by an accident
which incapacitated the breadwinner for many weeks,
during which there were no wages nor income of any
kind, and as a consequence there was an accruing
burden of debt. Those were not the days of Compensa-
tion Acts and Workmen's Insurance.
At this period we get our first real glimpse of the boy
Keir Hardie and of the conditions under which his
character developed. Hardly had the father recovered
from his illness and started to work when a strike took
place in the shipbuilding trade. One of Hardie's
earliest recollections was of attending a trade union
meeting with his father who advised against the strike on
the ground of lack of funds and slackness of trade.
During this dispute the family were compelled to sell
most of their household goods, and what was worse, to
enlist the boy of seven as one of the breadwinners. His
first job was as a message boy to the Anchor Line Steam-
ship Company, and as school attendance was now im-
possible, the father and mother devoted much of their
time in the evenings to his education, and were at least
able to teach him to read, and to love reading, which is
the basis of all education.
After a short time spent as a message boy, he was sent
into a brass-finishing shop, the intention being to
THE MAKING OF AN AGITATOR
apprentice him to that trade, but when it was learned that
the first year must be without wages, brass finishing was
abandoned, and his next place was in a lithographer's in
the Trongate at half-a-crown a week. That did not last
long and we find him serving as a baker's message boy
at three shillings a week. From this he went to heating
rivets in Thompson's shipyard on a fifty per cent, rise
in wages, four shillings and sixpence a week. He would
probably have continued at this employment and Clyde-
side would have had the nurturing of a great agitator,
but a fatal accident to two boys in the shipyard frightened
the mother, and once more he became a baker's
message boy.
All this experience was crowded within the space of
two years and while he was still but a child. Many other
working-class children have had similar experiences.
Several generations of them in fact, have been denied all
knowledge of the natural joys of childhood in order that
the present industrial system might be founded and run.
Whether that tremendous historical fact finds any
reflection in the mentality of the present day British
working class need not be discussed here, but it is
undoubted that these child-time experiences left an
indelible mark on the character of Keir Hardie. It was
a period of his life to which in after years he seldom
referred, but always with bitterness. The manner of its
ending forms the theme of one of the few autobiographical
notes which he has left us, and for that reason, if for no
other, his own description of it may be given.
There had been a great lock-out of Clyde shipworkers
lasting six weary months. The Union funds were soon
exhausted. In the Hardie household everything that
could be turned into food had been sold. The boy's
four shillings and sixpence a week was the only income.
One child, next in age to Keir, took fever and died, and
J. KEIR HARDIE
another child was about to be born. "The outlook was
black/' says Hardie, looking back upon it, "but there
was worse to come, and the form it took made it not only
a turning point in my life, but also in my outlook upon
men and things. I had reached an age at which I under-
stood the tragedy of poverty, and had a sense of responsi-
bility to those at home far beyond my years. I knew that,
despite the brave way in which my mother was facing
the situation, she was feeling the burden almost too great
for her to bear, and on more than one occasion I had
caught her crying by herself. One winter morning I
turned up late at the baker's shop where I was employed
and was told I had to, go upstairs to see the master. I
was kept waiting outside the door of the dining-room
while he said grace he was noted for religious Zeal-
and, on being admitted, found the master and his family
seated round a large table. He was serving out bacon and
eggs while his wife was pouring coffee from a glass in-
f user which at once shamefaced and terrified as I was -
attracted my attention. I had never before seen such
a beautiful room, nor such a table, loaded as it was with
food and beautiful things. The master read me a lecture
before the assembled family on the sin of slothfulness,
and added that though he would forgive me for that
once, if I sinned again by being late I should be
instantly dismissed, and so sent me to begin work.
"But the injustice of the thing was burning hot within
me, all the more that I could not explain why I was late.
The fact was that I had not yet tasted food. I had been
up most of the night tending my ailing brother, and had
risen betimes in the morning but had been made late by
assisting my mother in various ways before starting.
The work itself was heavy and lasted from seven in the
morning till closing time.
"Two mornings afterwards, a Friday, I was again a
THE MAKING OF AN AGITATOR
few minutes late, from the same source, and was informed
on arriving at the shop that I was discharged and my fort-
night's wages forfeited by way of punishment. The
news stupefied me, and finally I burst out crying and
begged the shopwoman to intercede with the master for
me. The morning was wet and I had been drenched in
getting to the shop and must have presented a pitiable
sight as I stood at the counter in my wet patched clothes.
She spoke with the master through a speaking tube,
presumably to the breakfast room I remembered so well,
but he was obdurate, and finally she, out of the goodness
of her heart, gave me a piece of bread and advised me to
look for another place. For a time I wandered about
the streets in the rain, ashamed to go home where there
was neither food nor fire, and actually discussing whether
the best thing was not to go and throw myself in the
Clyde and be done with a life that had so little
attractions. In the end I went to the shop and saw the
master and explained why I had been late. But it was
all in vain. The wages were never paid. But the
master continued to be a pillar of the Church and a
leading light in the religious life of the city !"
A poignant reminiscence for any human being to carry
through life, and explanatory of the ready sympathy for
desolate children characteristic of the man in after years;
and also of his contempt for that kind of hypocrisy which
covers up injustice under the cloak of religion.
The upshot of it all was that the father in sheer despair
went off again to sea, and the mother with her children,
removed to Newarthill, where her own mother still lived,
and quite close to the place where Keir was born.
Thus there had arrived, as he himself has said, a
turning point in his life, deciding that his lot should be
cast with that of the mining community and determining
some other things which, taken altogether, constituted a
J. KEIR HARDIE
somewhat complex environment and impulse for a
receptive minded lad growing from boyhood to
adolescence.
Both parents had what is called in Scotland a strictly
religious upbringing, and had encouraged the boy to
attend regularly at Sunday School. The Glasgow
experience had changed all that. They were persons of
strong individuality. The mother especially had a
downright way of looking at life, and had no use for the
forms of a religion which sanctioned the kind of treat-
ment which she and those she loved had passed through.
Henceforward the Hardie household was a free-thinking
household, uninfluenced by "kirk-gaun" conventionali-
ties or mere traditional beliefs. Priest and Presbyter
were not kept outside the door, but there was free
entrance also for books critical of orthodoxy or secular in
interest, and on the same shelf with the Bible and the
Pilgrim's Progress might be found Paine's "Age of
Reason" and works by Ingersoll, together with Wilson's
"Tales of the Borders' ' and the poems of Burns. All
the members of the family grew up with the healthy habit
of thinking for themselves and not along lines prescribed
by custom.
Almost immediately on coming to Newarthill the boy,
now ten years of age, went down the pit as trapper to a
kindly old miner, who before leaving him for the first
time at his lonely post, wrapped his jacket round him to
keep him warm. The work of a trapper was to open and
close a door which kept the air supply for the men in a
given direction. It was an eerie job, all alone for ten
long hours, with the underground silence only disturbed
by the sighing and whistling of the air as it sought to
escape through the joints of the door. A child's mind is
full of vision under ordinary surroundings, but with the
dancing flame of the lamps giving life to the shadows,
THE MAKING OF AN AGITATOR
only a vivid imagination can conceive what the vision
must have been to this lad.
At this time he began to attend Eraser's night school
at Holy town. The teacher was genuinely interested in
his pupils and did all he could for them with his limita-
tions of time and equipment. There was no light
provided in the school and the pupils had to bring their
own candles. Learning had now a kind of fascination
for the boy. He was very fond of reading, and a book,
"The Races of the World," presented to him by his
parents, doubtless awakened in his mind an interest in
things far beyond the coal mines of Lanarkshire. His
mother gave him every encouragement. She had a
wonderful memory. "Chevy Chase' ' and all the well-
known ballads and folk-lore tales were recited and
rehearsed round the winter fire. In this manner and
under these diverse influences did the future Labour
leader pass his boyhood, absorbing ideas and impressions
which remained with him ever afterwards.
The father returned from sea and found work on the
railway then being made between Edinburgh and
Glasgow. When this was finished, the family removed
to the village of Quarter in the Hamilton district, where
Keir started as pit pony driver, passing from that through
other grades to coal hewing, and by the time he was
twenty had become a skilled practical miner, and had
also gained two years' experience above ground working
in the quarries.
He was in the way however of becoming something
more than a miner. At the instigation of his mother he
had studied and become proficient in shorthand writing,
and through the same guidance had joined the Good
Templar movement which was then establishing itself in
most of the Scottish villages. He became an enthusiastic
propagandist in the Temperance cause, and it was in
J. KEIR HARDIE
tnis sphere that he really began to take a part in public
work. His habit of independent thinking too, had led
him, not to reject religion but only its forms and shams
and doctrinal accretions, and he was associating himself
with what seemed to him the simplest organised
expression of Christianity, namely the Evangelical
Union. He was, in fact, like many another earnest soul
at his time of life seeking outlets for his spiritual vitality.
Because of the part he was now playing in local public
affairs his brother miners pushed him into the chair at
meetings for the ventilating of their grievances, and
appointed him on deputations to the colliery managers,
posts which he accepted, not without warning from some
of his friends in the Temperance movement as to the
dangers of taking part in the agitations going on in the
district warnings which, to a youth of his temperament,
were more likely to stimulate forward than to hold back.
Without knowing it, almost involuntarily, he had
become a labour agitator, a man obnoxious to authority,
and regarded as dangerous by colliery managers and
gaffers.
The crisis came for him one morning when descending
No. 4 Quarter pit. Half-way down the shaft, the cage
stopped and then ascended. On reaching the surface
he was met by the stormy-faced manager who told him to
get off the Company's grounds and that his tools would
be sent home. "We'll hae nae damned Hardies in this
pit," he said, and he was as good as his word, for the
two younger brothers were also excommunicated. The
Hardie family was having its first taste of the boycott.
Keir now realised that he was evidently a person of some
importance in the struggle between masters and men,
and a comprehension of that fact was perhaps the one
thing needed to give settled direction to his propagandist
energies, hitherto spent somewhat diffusely in move-
8
THE MAKING OF AN AGITATOR
ments which afforded no opportunity of getting at close
quarters with an enemy. By depriving him of his means
of livelihood, the enemy itself had come to close quarters
with him. He had been labelled an agitator and he
accepted the label.
The mining industry was at this time in a deplorable
condition from the men's point of view. The few years
of prosperity and comparatively high wages during the
Franco-Prussian War had been followed by severe
depression, which, as usual, pressed more acutely upon
wages than upon dividends. The West of Scotland
miners, perhaps through lack of the right kind of leader-
ship, had not taken advantage of the prosperous years to
perfect their organisation, and when the slump camo
were completely at the mercy of the employers. In the
attempt to resist reductions the Lanarkshire County
Union, after some desultory and disastrous strikes, had
collapsed. A chaotic state of matters existed through-
out Lanarkshire. There was no cohesion or co-ordina-
tion, each district fighting for its own hand. During these
black years the miners were crushed down to 2s. per day
in the Quarter district where Hardie was now boycotted,
and to is. 8d. and is. gd. in the Airdrie district.
Here then was Hardie in the reawakening of the need
amongst the miners to reorganise for self-preservation.
A large-scale strike was impossible. Limitation of out-
put was the only alternative, and that meant a still further
reduction of the weekly wage already at starvation point.
Yet men and women, disorganised as they were, made
the sacrifice all over Lanarkshire. The miners, always
good fighters, were beginning to lift their heads again.
What was wanted was leadership. By driving Hardie
from one district to another the employers themselves
made him a leader of the men. The family moved to
Low Waters, near the Cadzow collieries; and here
J. KEIR HARDIE
Hardie began to show that resourcefulness which in
future years was to carry him through many a difficult
situation. He opened a tobacconist's and stationer's
shop, while his mother set up a small grocery business.
His painfully acquired shorthand proficiency now also
came into play, and he became correspondent to the
" Glasgow Weekly Mail," for the Coatbridge and
Airdrie district, thus modestly making his first entrance
into the world of journalism, a sphere in which he might
easily have made great progress but for the insistent call
of the labour movement. The appointment at least
gave him greater freedom to carry on his work among
the miners.
In the month of May, 1879, the masters had intimated
another reduction of wages. This had the effect of
quickening the agitation. Huge meetings were held
every week in the Old Quarry at Hamilton, and at one of
these meetings on July 3rd, 1879, Hardie was appointed
Corresponding Secretary. This gave him a new outlet
and enabled him to get in touch with representative
miners all over Lanarkshire. On July 24th, three weeks
after his appointment, he submitted to a mass meeting
rules for the guidance of the organisation. These were
adopted, and at the same meeting he was chosen as|
'delegate to attend a National Conference of Miners to
be held in Glasgow the week following. Speaking at a
meeting of miners at Shieldmuir in August of this year,
he declared that over-production had been the ruin of the
miners, and said that he held in his hand a letter from
Alexander Macdonald, M.P., reminding the Lanark-
shire miners that they were in the same position as in
1844 when, by united action, wages were raised from 35.
to 52. per day. The following week, at a mass meeting,
he was appointed Miners' Agent, with a majority of 875
over the highest vote cast for other candidates. He was
10
THE MAKING OF AN AGITATOR
now twenty-three years of age and he had found his
vocation. He was to be a labour agitator.
Probably he himself did not realise how uphill and
thorny was the path he had entered upon, nor how far
it would lead him. Almost immediately a curious and
well-nigh unbelievable incident brought home to him
some of the difficulties of his task.- On September 4th,
a huge demonstration was held at Low Waters at which
Alexander Macdonald was the chief speaker. Hardie
moved the resolution of welcome to the veteran agitator,
and in a somewhat rhetorical passage, excusable in an
immature platform orator, he spoke of Macdonald as an
"unparalleled benefactor of the mining community,"
and compared his work for the miners to that of "Luther
at the rise of Protestantism." He had said just exactly
the wrong thing to an audience, two-thirds of whom were
Irish Roman Catholics, to whom the name of Luther was
anathema, and Protestantism more obnoxious than
low wages. There were loud murmurs of disapproba-
tion, and Hardie had actually to be protected from
assault. How often has this tale to be told in the struggle
of labour for justice and liberty! These sectarian
quarrels have now partially died out in Lanarkshire, but
for many years they w,ere of the greatest service to the
employing class.
At another National Conference held at Dunfermline,
on October i6th of the same year, Hardie was made
National Secretary, an appointment which denoted, not
the existence of a national organisation, but the need for
it. The Scottish Miners' Federation was not formed till
some years later. Hardie's selection at least indicates
how far he had already advanced in the confidence of his
fellow workers.
As a result of all this agitation, sporadic strikes took
place early in 1880 at several collieries in Lanarkshire,
II
J. KEIR HARDIE
the most memorable of these being at Eddlewood, where
there were conflicts with the police and subsequent trials
of pickets for alleged intimidation. In connection with
this strike Hardie made his first visit into Ayrshire to
warn the miners there against coming to Lanarkshire.
The hunger of the women and children drove the men
back to work, but deepened the discontent, and in
August, against the advice of Hardie, another strike,
general over the whole of Lanarkshire, took place and
lasted for six weeks. How it was carried through with-
out Union funds it is difficult to imagine. Public sub-
scriptions were raised. The colliery village bands went
far afield throughout Scotland and even across the
border, appealing for help. No strike money was paid
out but only food was given. Hardie with the other
agents got local merchants to supply goods, themselves
becoming responsible for payment. At his home a soup
kitchen was kept running, and all had a share of what
was going until further credit became impossible. In
the end there was a sum unpaid, but the merchants, some
of themselves originally from the miner class, did not
press their claims too hard and freed the agents from their
bond. The strike was lost, but the Union, though
shaken, remained, and Hardie, having fought his first
big labour battle, emerged from what seemed defeat
and disaster, stronger and more determined than ever to
stand by his class. He accepted a call from Ayrshire to
organise the miners there, and, as will be shown, made
good use of the experience gained in Lanarkshire.
At this time, he also added to his responsibilities in
another direction. He became a married man. His
agitation activities had not prevented him from taking
part in the social life of the countryside, nor from forming
the associations which come naturally to all healthy
human beings in the springtime of life. He was not
12
THE MAKING OF AN AGITATOR
then, nor at any time, the austere Puritanical person he
has sometimes been represented to be. A Puritan he
was in all matters of absolute right or wrong, and could
not be made to budge from what seemed to him to be the
straight path. But with that limitation he was one of
the most companionable of men. He could sing a good
song, and dance and be merry with great abandon. He
had his youthful friendships and love affairs, more than
one, culminating as usual, in a supreme affection for one
lass above all the others; and so it came about that, just
before migrating into Ayrshire, he was married to Miss
Lillie Wilson, whose acquaintance he had made during
his work in the Temperance movement. The two young
folk settled down in Cumnock to make a home for them-
selves, neither of them probably having any idea that in
days to come the male partner would have to spend so
much of his life outside of that home, returning to it
periodically as a sailor from his voyaging or a warrior
from his campaigning to find rest and quiet ( and renewal
of strength for the storms and battles of a political career.
The labour movement owes much to its fighting men,
and to the women also, who have stepped into the furies
of the fray, but not less does it owe to the home-keeping
women folk whose devotion has made it possible for the
others to do this work. Such was the service rendered
by Mrs. Keir Hardie in the quietude of Old Cumnock.
The home was at first an ordinary room and kitchen
house, and later a six roomed cottage and garden known
to all members of the I. L. P. as "Lochnorris."
Hardie had come to Cumnock nominally as the Ayr-
shire Miners' Secretary, but there was really no Ayrshire
Miners' Union. To get that into being was his task.
The conditions were similar to those in Lanarkshire.
At most of the collieries there were a few rebel spirits,
keeping the flame of discontent alive and ready to form
J. KEIR HARDIE
themselves into Union committees if given the right
stimulus and support. It was from these the invitation
to Hardie had come, and it was through co-ordinating
these that a move could be made for general organisation.
The first skirmishes are always won by the few pioneers
who have the stout hearts and the burning vision.
It took nearly a year to get the organisation together,
and by the beginning of August, 1881, a demand was
formulated, on behalf of the whole of the miners of Ayr-
shire, for a ten per cent, increase of wages. The demand
was refused. There was no alternative but to strike or
go on working at the masters' terms. In the latter case,
the Union would be destroyed before it had begun to
exist. The question was, could the men all over the
county be got to strike? Would they risk a stoppage,
knowing that there could be no strike pay? Mass
meetings were summoned in various parts of the county
to be addressed by Hardie and other speakers to decide
the question: "Strike or no strike"? but the question
settled itself almost intuitively.
The present writer has heard old miners, who were
young men then, describe what happened. It is
interesting as a comparison with present day
methods of calling a strike. On the Saturday, at the
end of the rows and on the quoiting grounds, the talk
was : " Would there be a strike?" Nobody knew. On
the Sunday coming home from the kirk the crack was
the same : "Would there be a strike ?" On Sunday
night they laid out their pit clothes as usual, ready
for work next morning, but for ten long weeks they
had no use for pit clothes. On Monday, long before
dawn, there was a stir on the Ayrshire roads.
At two in the morning the Annbank brass band came
playing through Trabboch village and every miner,
young and old, jumped out of bed and fell in behind.
THE MAKING OF AN AGITATOR
Away up towards Auchinleck they went marching,
their numbers increasing with every mile of the
road. On through Darnconner, and Cronberry and
Lugar and Muirkirk, right on to Glenbuck by Aird's
Moss where the Covenanter Martyrs sleep, then down
into Cumnock, at least five thousand strong. Never did
magic muster such an army of the morning. It was as
though the fairies had come down amongst men to
summon them to a tryst. Over in the Kilmarnock district
similar scenes were being enacted. The bands went
marching from colliery to colliery and
"The rising- sun ower Galston Muir,
Wi' glorious light was glintin"
upon processions of colliers on all the roads round about
Galston village and Hurlford and Crookedholm and
Riccarton, making, as by one common impulse, towards
Craigie Hill which had not witnessed such a mustering
of determined men since the days of William Wallace.
-Ere nightfall a miracle had been accomplished. For
the first time in its history, there was a stoppage nearly
complete in the Ayrshire mining industry. At last the
Ayrshire miners were united and, win or lose, they would
stand or fall together. The fields were ripening to
harvest when the men "lifted their graith." Ere they
went back to work the Cumnock hills were white with
snow, and by that time Keir Hardie was at once the most
hated and the best respected man in Ayrshire. It was
the Lanarkshire experience over again an experience of
sacrifice and endurance. The bands went out collecting
money. The women folk and the children went "tattie
howkin' " and harvesting. Thrifty miners' families who
had saved a little during the prosperous years of the
early 'seventies, threw their all into the common stock.
The farmers, many of them, gave meal and potatoes to
keep the children from starving. Here and there was an
15
J. KEIR HARDIE
occasional break away, and the pickets were out, and the
police and the military, and there were skirmishes and
arrests and imprisonments. Hardie toiled night and day
directing- the relief committees, restraining the wild
spirits from violence, advocating the men's claims
temperately and persuasively in the local press,
addressing mass meetings all over the county and
keeping the men in good heart. " God's on our side,
men," he declared. "Look at the weather He's giein'
us !" And it seemed true. It was the finest fall of the
year in Ayrshire within the memory of man, and, but for
the pinch of hunger, was like a glimpse of Heaven to men
accustomed to sweat ten hours a day in underground
darkness. Whoever wants to know why it is so easy
to get the miners to take an idle day, let him try a few
hours "howkin' coal" and he will understand.
So the fight went on from week to week, till at last
the winter came as the ally of the coalowners. Boots
and clothes and food were needed for the bairns, and for
the sake of the bairns the men went back to work. But
they went back as they came out, altogether, maintaining
their solidarity even in defeat. Nor were they wholly
defeated. Within a month the coalowners discovered
that trade had improved, and, without being asked, they
advanced wages, a thing unprecedented in the coal
trade. That ten weeks' stoppage had put a wholesome
fear into the hearts of the coalowners, and they had also
learned that a leader of men had come into Ayrshire.
Here ended the second lesson for Keir Hardie the
agitator. In the impoverished condition of the miners,
the formation of the Union was for the present impractic-
able, and, recognising this, he settled himself down
quietly as a citizen of Cumnock, and bided his time.
16
CHAPTER TWO
JOURNALIST AND LABOUR ORGANISER "THE MINER* '
IT is not clear what Hardie's sources of income
were in those early days in Ayrshire. He had
determined to work no more underground for any
employer. No colliery manager would have the chance
a second time to drive him out. There was no miners'
organisation to pay him a wage, though he ceased not
from doing organising work. The likelihood is that he
had kept up his press connections formed while in Lan-
arkshire, and that there was some little income from that
quarter. He wrote occasional verses, amateurish, but of
the kind acceptable in the "Poet's Corner" of provincial
papers, and there would be an odd seven and sixpence for
these. He was never a spendthrift, and probably both he
and his lass had a small "nest egg" laid by before they
joined partnership, and with this were prepared to go
on for a month or two until the man could make good.
He had great faith in himself, and she had great faith in
him, and what more could any newly-married couple
want for starting out in life ?
Before long the financial question was solved. The
pastor of the Evangelical Union church which Hardie
joined had eked out a somewhat scanty stipend by writ-
ing notes for the local "Cumnock News." The pastor,
in bad health, went off for a holiday, and asked Hardie
to write his notes while he was away. He never
returned, and Hardie found himself writing the notes
practically as a member of the staff, and as he, with his
m
J. KEIR HARDIE
knowledge of the miners' conditions and a decidedly
literary turn of the pen, was just the kind of man wanted
for such a paper, he was, by and by to all intents and
purposes, acting as editor.
The "Cumnock News/' it should be said, was an off-
shoot of the "Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald/' which
then was, and still is, one of the most ably conducted of
Scottish provincial papers. Its editor and proprietor,
Mr. Arthur Guthrie, was a man with literary and
artistic tastes, and in politics a staunch Liberal, a fact
which, however we may regard Liberalism now, was of
some democratic value in those days, in a shire largely
dominated by the county families. It required some
fortitude to stand up against the Bute, the Eglinton and
the Dundonald interests, not to speak of the coal-owning
magnates of whom the Baird family was the most
powerful.
It will thus be seen that Hardie's first editorial experi-
ence was on the side of the Liberal Party. There is no
evidence that he took much interest in politics before he
came into Ayrshire, but he could not help doing so
now, nor could any active-minded working man. The
political question of the hour was the extension of house-
hold franchise to the counties, and as it was to the
Liberal Party that the workers looked for that boon, it
was natural that the earnest and thoughtful sections of
them should be Liberals. Hardie became a member of
the Liberal Association, and, naturally, being the kind
of man he was, was an active and prominent member.
He was, however, a very complex personality, this new-
comer into the social and political life of Ayrshire, and
neither the Liberal Association nor the ' Cumnock
News "could absorb more than a small part of his
energies. He was still active in temperance work, and,
as a matter of course, became Grand Worthy Chief of
18
JOURNALIST
the local Good Templars' Lodge. He took his share of
the church work and rilled the pulpit on occasions when
the absence of the appointed minister made that neces-
sary, and frequently his voice was to be heard at the
street corners in Cumnock and in some of the neigh-
bouring villages, preaching the Gospel of Christ as he
understood it. He formed an evening class two nights
a week for the teaching of shorthand writing, himself
acting as teacher without fee or reward, and he gathered
round him a group of students, who, we may be sure,
learnt more things than shorthand.
At this time his reading of books became more com-
prehensive if not more systematic. That latter could
hardly be with his mode of life. He then read Carlyle's
' Sartor Resartus ' for the first time and became
acquainted with some of the writings of Ruskin and of
Emerson. Fiction does not seem to have attracted
him much, except in the form of ballads and folk-lore,
though, strange to say, he himself wrote one or two
stones when later he had control of a paper of his own.
With Robert Burns he had of course been familiar since
childhood. " I owe more to Robert Burns than to any
man, alive or dead," he once wrote. As a boy it was
the tender humanitarianism of the Scottish peasant poet
to which his nature responded, and he has told how the
"Lines on Seeing a wounded Hare" thrilled him with
pity and anger. He was gaining in rnqntal power and
self reliance during these years, though with no settled
purpose as to the use he would make of the knowledge
and strength he was acquiring, except that all the time
he had one fixed immediate object in view : the forma-
tion of an Ayrshire Miners' Union.
This event took place in August, 1886. The exact
date is not known nor the place of nativity, early records
having apparently been lost. James Neil, of Cumnock,
19
J. KEIR HARDIE
who took an active part in the early work of the Union,
has recollections of a delegate meeting in Mauchline,
at which Andrew Fisher, of Crosshouse, (afterwards
Prime Minister of Australia) was present, and he thinks
this may have been the initial meeting, which is not
unlikely, Fisher, like Neil himself, being one of the
original delegates. Whether that was so or not, one
thing is certain. The Union was formed in 1886, and
Hardie was appointed its Organising Secretary.
Henceforth, the coal magnates of Ayrshire had a new
force to reckon with. Hardie's allowance it could
hardly be called a salary was 75 a year, but as he
was earning his living in other ways, he devoted the
money to the starting of a monthly paper, and in the
beginning of the following year produced "The Miner/'
of which we shall have something to say in due course.
This same year the Scottish Miners' Federation was
formed, and to this also Hardie was appointed Secre-
tary, perhaps on the principle that the willing horse gets
the heaviest burden. That he was willing there can be
no doubt. Since the days of the Lanarkshire strike,
seven years before, he had realised the need for the
Scottish miners being united in one organisation, and
he was ready to take his share in the work.
There was also being borne in upon him and others
a belief that the time had come for organised Labour
to consider what use could be made of the new political
opportunities which had been presented to it. The
passing of the 1884 Franchise Act, which extended
household franchise to the counties, brought great hopes
to the workers, though it found them, for the moment,
unable to take advantage of it. It gave political power
to practically all the adult miners in the country, and the
leaders of the miners began to take thought as to how it
could be utilised.
20
LABOUR ORGANISER
For the most part they held to the belief that in the
Liberal Party organisation lay the medium by which the
representatives of Labour could reach Parliament.
Liberalism, simply because it was traditionally opposed
to Toryism, was accepted as embodying the progressive
spirit of the nation. The leader of the Liberal Party was
W. E. Gladstone, then in the heyday of his popularity.
The workers generally were willing to trust Gladstone,
but amongst them were a considerable number who,
having begun to imbibe Socialist ideas, had doubts
as to the genuineness of the Liberal Party's professions
of goodwill to labour. They knew that although it
might be true that the Tory Party was dominated by
the landed interests, there were not a few territorial
magnates in the councils of Liberalism. They also
knew that the Liberal Party policy was directed largely
on behoof of the manufacturing and commercial interests,
and they felt that, as in the very nature of things these
interests must collide with those of the workers, to
strengthen the Liberal Party might be like making a
stick for labour's back. Yet, on the whole, they were
willing to give it a trial, induced by the knowledge that
there were in the Liberal Party a few honest, sincere
and able men, friendly to labour men such as Cun-
ninghame Graham, the Radical Member for North-
West Lanark, Conybeare, Stephen Mason, Dr. G. B.
Clark, and a few others, who, with Burt and Fenwick
and Abraham already representing the miners, were
expected to force the pace inside the Liberal Party. In
Cunninghame Graham especially, great hopes were cen-
tred. He had won North-West Lanarkshire as a Glad-
stonian Liberal in the 1886 election. In his election
campaign Graham had thoroughly familiarised himself
with the needs and aspirations of the miners, had whole-
heartedly adopted their programme of reforms, and had
P 21
J. KEIR HARDIE
advocated the passing of an Eight Hours' Bill, the estab-
lishment of a wage court, and the nationalisation of
minerals; he had, moreover, made it quite clear that he
supported such measures only as necessary transitional
steps towards Socialism. Two years later he was to
prove his sincerity by introducing the Miners' Eight
Hours' Day Bill into Parliament, and by going to prison
in defence of free speech. He had already, by his
originality of utterance, caught the attention of the
House of Commons, and the fact that he came of aristo-
cratic lineage added piquancy to his sometimes savage
sarcasms against the ruling classes. Altogether, he
was a picturesque and dashing Parliamentary figure;
and that this man, holding views that were little short
of revolutionary, should still be a recognised member of
the Liberal Party, helped to sustain working-class faith
in Liberalism and probably helped to delay, until the
psychological moment was past, the formation of a clear-
cut, working-class party. The right moment was at the
passing of the Franchise Act.
Keir Hardie, though himself a member of the Liberal
Party, was amongst the doubters, and he, for one,
resolved to put the matter to the test at the earliest
opportunity, and in his capacity as Secretary of the
Ayrshire Miners' Union, made preparations accordingly.
In May, 1887, at demonstrations of the Ayrshire miners
held on Irvine Moor and on Cragie Hill, the following
resolution was adopted: "That in the opinion of this
meeting, the time has come for the formation of a Labour
Party in the House of Commons, and we hereby agree
to assist in returning one or more members to represent
the miners of Scotland at the first available opportunity."
Shortly afterwards Hardie was adopted as the miners'
candidate for North Ayrshire, and immediately there
developed a situation which has been repeated hundreds
22
LABOUR ORGANISER
of times since all over the country, and which can best
be shown by quotations from a speech delivered by
Hardie at Irvine in October of that same year. It is
his first recorded political utterance, and defines very
clearly his attitude at that stage of his development. It
shows that he was not yet prepared to fight on a full
Socialist programme, and also that he was not unwilling
to work through the Liberal Party, provided its methods
were honestly democratic. He was, in fact, putting
Liberalism to the test of allegiance to its own avowed
principles. He said, "The Liberals and Conservatives
have, through their organisations, selected candidates.
They are both, as far as I know, good men. The point
I wish to emphasise, however, is this : that these men
have been selected without the mass of the people being
consulted. Your betters have chosen the men, TancH
they now send them down to you to have them returned.
What would you think if the Miners' Executive Council
were to meet in Kilmarnock and appoint a secretary to
the miners of Ayrshire in that way? Your candidate
ought to be selected by the voice and vote of the mass of
the people. We are told that Sir William Wedderburn
is a good Radical and that he is sound on the Liberal
programme. It may be all true, but we do not know
whether it is or not. Will he, for example, support an
Eight Hour Bill? Nobody has asked him, and nobody
cares except ourselves. Will he support the abolition
of private property in royalties? Well, he is a landlord
and not likely to be too extreme in that respect. Is he
prepared to establish a wage court that would secure to
the workman a just reward for his labour? Nobody
knows whether he is or not. Is he prepared to support
the extension of the Employers' Liability Act, which
presently limits the compensation for loss of life, how-
ever culpable the employers may be, to three years'
23
J. KEIR HARDIE
wages? Nobody knows. I am not surprised at the
action of the Liberal Association in opposing me. This
is what has been done in nearly every case where a
Labour candidate has been brought forward. I have
been asked what course I intend to take, and my reply is,
the same as formerly. I will endeavour to have a Labour
Electoral Association formed in every town and village
in the constituency. When the time comes for an elec-
tion I will judge how far circumstances justify me in
going forward. If the working men are true to them-
selves, I will insist on a plebiscite being taken between
myself and the Liberal candidate, and then let the man
who gets most support go to the poll. If the Liberal
Association refuses to take this course, working men
will then see how much their professions of friendship
are worth. I am not specially anxious to go to Parlia-
ment, but I am anxious and determined that the wants
and wishes of the working classes shall be made known
and attended to there. Meantime, I recommend my
friends not to pledge themselves to either of the candi-
dates now before them till they see what the future
may bring forth."
There was nothing revolutionary in all this; Social-
ism was not even hinted at; Liberalism was not con-
demned; it was to be put upon its trial, and the test
of its sincerity was to be its willingness within its own
organisation to provide a fair field for labour. The one
thing that does emerge from this utterance and others
during this period is Hardie's class feeling, inherent in
his very nature, derived from and intensified by his own
life experience, and avowed at a time when he had pro-
bably made no acquaintance with Marxian philosophy.
"I am anxious and determined that the wants and
wishes of the working classes shall be made known and
attended to in Parliament." From that fundamental
24
LABOUR ORGANISER
political creed he never deviated during the whole of his
life. It was his basic article of faith, the impregnable
rock upon which he stood immovable and incorruptible :
Loyalty to the working class. The party politicians
never could understand this, and therefore they never
understood Keir Hardie. The simple straightforward-
ness and steadfastness' of the man were baffling to them,
and afterwards, in the House of Commons, when he kept
at arm's length all Parliamentary intriguers and even
held aloof from some who may have desired from quite
friendly motives to be on terms of social fellowship with
him, it was ascribed to boorishness on his part. It was
nothing of the sort, as those who were on terms of
intimacy with him well knew. It was the expression at
once of his own individuality and of his class loyalty.
He was a man who could not be patronised, and he was
jealous for the independence of the working people, of
whom he believed himself to be representative. When,
many years afterwards, George Bernard Shaw charac-
terised him as "the damndest natural aristocrat in the
House of Commons/ 5 there was more truth in the
description than Shaw himself realised. If to be an
aristocrat is to have pride of caste, Keir Hardie was an
aristocrat. He possessed pride of class in the superla-
tive degree, in a much greater degree than the average
working man himself has ever possessed it. Hardie
was willing at all times to associate with members of the
other classes for the furtherance of the objects he had in
view with Fabian middle class people, with clergy-
men, and artists, and litterateurs, but always on terms of
equality. At the* first hint of patronage, either on the
ground of class or cultural superiority, he drew back and
went his own way, alone if need be.
Unforeseen events decided that his first parliamentary
contest should be elsewhere than in North Ayrshire, but
25
J. KEIR HARDIE
it was here, in the year 1887, that he first threw down his
challenge to Liberalism to prove its sincerity, and called
upon his fellow workers to prepare to make use of their
political opportunities self-reliantly and with a sense of
the dignity of their class. ' ' So long as men are content to
believe that Providence has sent into the world one class
of men saddled and bridled, and another class booted
and spurred to ride them, so long will they be ridden; but
the moment the masses come to feel and act as if they
were men, that moment the inequality ceases." Thus
he wrote in "The Miner" at this time. He himself had
reached that stage very early in life and in his owni
personality he typified his conception of what the working
class ought to be.
The year 1887 was a very busy one for Keir Hardie.
He had already acquired that capacity for work which in
future years frequently astonished his colleagues of the
Independent Labour Party. As already recorded, the
Scottish Miners' Federation had been formed in the
autumn of 1886 and he had accepted the position of
Secretary. A personal paragraph in the first Annual
Report gives only a partial indication of his activities.
"Conscious," he says, "of many defects in the per-
formance of my duties, I have yet tried to do my best. It
has been hard sometimes to bear the blame of unreason-
able men, though this has been more than compensated
for by the tolerance of the great mass. There is scarcely
a district in Scotland where my voice has not been heard,
with what effect it is for others to say. I find, leaving out
the deputations to London and the big conferences, that
I have attended on behalf of the Federation 77 meetings,
37 of which have been public, and 40 Executive and
conference meetings, involving 6,000 miles of railway
travelling. I have sent out over 1,500 letters and circu-
lars, and over 60,000 printed leaflets. This has involved
26
LABOUR ORGANISER
a very considerable amount of work, but I am persuaded
it has not been labour in vain.' ' A reference to the
balance sheet shows under the heading of "Salaries" :
"J. K. Hardie, 3 155." a remuneration certainly not
commensurate to the work done, but probably bearing
some proportion to the earnings of the miners themselves,
for in this same report it is recorded that "wages still
continue very low, ranging from 2s. 6d. to 45. per day,
the average being about 35. 3d. Work is, however, very
unsteady, and thus the earnings of the men cannot be
more than I2s. per week. 1 ' Those were hard times for
underground workers, and not unduly prosperous ones
for their leaders. Another interesting item in the financial
statement runs : "Donation from meeting in Edinburgh
(Socialist), 11 8s. 6d." probably some public gather-
ing under the auspices of the newly-formed Socialist
League, willing thus early to help forward the work of
industrial organisation. The concluding exordium is in
the genuine Keir Hardie vein familiar to all who ever
had the good fortune to work along with him. * ' May the
experience of the past not be lost on us in the future.
There are a number of young and ardent spirits in our
ranks who, if they can be laid hold of, will ensure the
success of our movement in years to come. Ours is no
old-fashioned sixpence-a-day agitation. We aim at the
complete emancipation of the worker from the thraldom
of wagedom. Co-operative production, under State \/
management, should be our goal, as, never till this has
been obtained, can we hope for better times for working
people." Thus spake the optimist.
He was himself prevented from being present at this
first annual meeting of the Federation. The death of
his second-born child, Sarah, two years of age, had
naturally affected him very keenly, and made it impos-
sible for him at the time to be interested in anything else
27
J. KEIR HARDIE
than this first domestic affliction which came upon him.
Two other children were left, James, born in 1881, and
Agnes, born in 1885, but as usually happens, the one that
was taken had no peer in the minds of the bereaved
parents. Another boy, Duncan, born this same year,
1887, helped to fill the gap thus made in the little family
circle.
The visits to London mentioned in the report were
to interview the Home Secretary in favour of improve-
ments in the Government's Mines Bill, and of
Donald Crawford's Bill to abolish the truck system,
introduced and passed during the Parliamentary session
of that year. The miners sought to have an eight-hours
clause for boys, together with one making it penal for
an employer to keep men in the pit when they desired to
get out. Hardie's deputation colleagues were R. Chis-
holm Robertson of Stirlingshire, John Weir of Fife-
shire, and Robert Brown of the Lothians, all at that
time active in promoting organisation in their various
districts. They also, on this occasion, did some lobby-
ing of Members to support their proposals, and in the
course of this Keir Hardie doubtless got ample confirma-
tion of the need for direct Labour representation, and
was strengthened in his growing belief that such repre-
sentation should be independent of existing political
parties. We can also see the effect which the subse-
quent result, when the Eight Hours Amendment was
defeated actually owing to the action of the Liberal-
Labour members from mining districts, Burt, Fenwick
and Abraham, had upon his attitude to certain of the
older Trade Union leaders and both their industrial and
political policy.
One notable amendment of the Bill, secured very
largely through pressure by Hardie and other outside
agitators, was the prohibition of the employment of boys
28
"THE MINER"
under twelve. "What a difference," he commented in
"The Miner," "from the time when children were taken
into the pit almost as soon as they were out of the cradle. ' '
What a difference, he might have said, from the time
when he himself went down the pit at ten years of age !
What a difference, we might say, from the present time,
when fourteen is the minimum school-leaving age.
Verily, the agitators have not laboured in vain.
Reference is made above to "The Miner," a monthly
journal of which he was the founder and editor, and to
which, as a matter of fact, he contributed about one-third
of the letterpress. Its first number appeared in January,
1887, and it was published for two years, being discon-
tinued at the end of 1888, partly because of the usual
lack of support from which all purely Labour journals
have suffered, but chiefly because by that time Hardie
himself was becoming too deeply involved in political
propagandist agitation to be able to give the necessary
time to the work of supervision. It was a very remarkable
paper, and to those Who are fortunate enough to possess
the two volumes, it mirrors in a very realistic way the
social conditions of the collier folk of that time, and also
throws considerable light on the many phases and
aspects of the general Labour movement in the days
when it was gropingly feeling its way through many
experiments and experiences towards political self-
reliance and self-knowledge.
The journal is peculiarly valuable to us in that it
reveals Hardie himself as a man growing and develop-
ing, and becoming more and more self-assertive. It
began as "The Miner: a Journal for Underground
Workers." When it had reached the second year it had
become "The Miner: an Advanced Political Journal.
Edited by J. K. Hardie," thus definitely proclaiming
the aim of its controller if not yet of the workers whose
29
J. KEIR HARDIE
interests it advocated. It was at once the germ and
the precursor of the "Labour Leader/' which was to be
for many years almost the personal organ of Keir
Hardie, and is now the firmly established and influential
exponent of the Independent Labour Party, of which he
was the founder. In its pages you can discern him,
tentatively, but ever more boldly, finding expression for
his Socialist convictions, and from being a miners'
leader, steadily aspiring towards becoming a people's
leader. He was quite sure of himself, and of his pur-
pose, but not quite sure of the approval of his readers.
"The miners of Britain," he said in his first leading
article, "stand sorely in need of an organ to ventilate
their grievances, and teach them the duty they owe to
themselves. The paper, while dealing primarily with
purely mining affairs, will advocate reform in every
direction which promises to bring relief to the toiling
millions," and throughout the career of the paper he is
found giving a platform to the pioneers and protagonists
of schemes of working-class betterment, no matter what
their label might be. Land Nationalisers, Socialists,
Anarchists, Trade Unionists, are all given room to
state and argue their case, and ever and anon he lets it be
known where he himself stands and where he is going.
"The capitalist has done good service in the past by
developing trade and commerce. His day is now nearly
past. He has played his part in the economy of the
industrial system, and must now give way for a more
perfect order of things wherein the labourer shall be
rewarded in proportion to his work." That is not
exactly Socialism, but the idea of evolution in industry
towards Socialism has seldom been more tersely stated;
nor, indeed, has the general purpose of Socialism been
more accurately defined. And again, "The world to-
day is sick and weary at heart. Even our clergy are for
30
'THE MINER"
the most part dumb dogs who dare not bark. So it was
in the days of Christ. They who proclaimed a God-
given gospel to the world were the poor and the com-
paratively unlettered. We need to-day a return to the
principles of that Gospel which, by proclaiming all men
sons of God and brethren one with another, makes it
impossible for one, Shylock-like, to insist on his rights
at the expense of another/'
There was no lack of idealism in the journalistic fare
served up to the working miners who turned to their
trade journal for news of the daily conflicts with em-
ployers and managers, and found that in plenty, along
with the idealism. We have here the manifestations of
what I might call the spiritual consistency which formed
the fibre of Hardie's character, and was in large measure
the secret of his power to win the allegiance even of
those whose belief in Socialism had a more materialistic
foundation.
His energy at this time seems to have been inex-
haustible. Besides this editorial and journalistic work,
he was a member of Auchinleck School Board, and, in
addition to his secretarial duties for the Scottish Miners'
Federation, he was still acting as secretary of the
Ayrshire Miners' Union, and in that capacity displaying
an amount of vigour surprising to his associates and
disconcerting to colliery managers and officials with
whom he was perforce in continual conflict. Con-
ducting what are known as "partial" strikes, bringing
the men out, now in one corner of Ayrshire, now in
another, on questions of wages, on questions of illegal
deductions of weight, on questions of victimisation;
holding mass meetings, and calling idle days here, there,
and everywhere, with a view to enforcing the policy of
restriction of output which at this time was the only
alternative policy to a general strike in resistance to
J. KEIR HARDIE
wage reductions; and in one way and another keeping
the whole Ayrshire area in that condition of unrest
which was the only possible means of giving active
expression to the discontent seething throughout the
entire mining community of Scotland. There was
indeed very ample justification for this agitation.
"With coal selling in Glasgow at is. per cwt, and
public works stopped for want of fuel; with mounted
policemen riding down inoffensive children nearly to
death, and felling quiet old men with a blow from a
baton; with the wives and children of thirty thousand
men not on the verge but in the very throes of starva-
tion; with all this, and much more that might be named,
a condition of things is being fostered which can only
end in riot, as unhappily has been in Lanarkshire/'
This is his picture of the condition of the miners at that
time, a picture the truth of which can easily be verified
from the columns of the contemporary newspapers. He
was in favour of a general strike throughout England,
Scotland and Wales, but the unity of organisation which
could bring that to pass was yet far away, and guerilla
fighting was the only possible tactics. "If the miners
were Highland crofters/' he said, "or African slaves,
or Bulgarians, people would be found on every
hand getting up indignation meetings to protest
against the wrongs inflicted upon them by the capit-
alists, but because they are only miners nobody
heeds them."
The miners have now found means of making every-
body heed them, and Hardie and his colleagues had
already begun the forging of the weapons for that
achievement. It was on a motion from Scotland that,
at a Conference in Manchester in April, 1887, it was
agreed that "The Federations be admitted to the Miners'
National Union on payment of one farthing per member
32
"THE MINER"
quarterly, this money to be spent in furthering legislative
work and in holding conferences for the consideration of
the state of trade and wages, such conferences to have
power to issue such recommendations as may seem
necessary for the improvement of the same/' Thus
was laid the basis of the now powerful Miners' Federa-
tion of Great Britain.
Any account of this period of Hardie's life would be
incomplete without a reference to the colliery disaster
at Udston, in Lanarkshire, which took place on the
28th May, 1887, and by which eighty-five lives were
lost. He, immediately on getting the news, hurried
through from Ayrshire and joined with the other agents
in the relief work and in comforting the bereaved
relatives. Many of the men who had been killed were
his own personal friends, lads he had worked with under-
ground or companioned in play and sport and sociality
when he and they were growing into manhood. He was
able to visualise the conditions under which they had
met their death in the fiery mine with never a chance to
escape, and he believed that it was only the parsimony
of the mineowners that prevented the methods being
used which would make such accidents impossible.
This belief deepened his conviction that there would
never be proper protection for the miners except through
compulsory legislation in the framing of which the
miners themselves should have a voice. Yet in after
years one of his chief difficulties was to convince the
miners themselves of that fact, and that they should
trust only in themselves for the passing of protective
laws. On this occasion, in "The Miner/' he im-
peached both the colliery management and the Govern-
ment inspectors for gross neglect of their duties. But
of course "The Miner" was read only by miners, and
only by a small number of them.
33
J. KEIR HARDIE
The end of 1887 brought his severance voluntarily
on his part from the two Ayrshire papers, the "Ardros-
san Herald" and "Cumnock News," with which he had
been connected since 1882.
During that time in addition to supplying the news of
the district, he had contributed under the nom de plume
of "The Trapper," a weekly article, headed "Black
Diamonds, or Mining Notes Worth Minding." His
farewell words to the readers were indicative alike of the
character of his work on these local papers and of his
aspirations for the future in the wider field upon which
he was now entering :
"I have tried to practice what I preached by showing,
so far as I knew how, that manhood was preferable to
money. Nor have I the least intention of changing. Cir-
cumstances have for the time being directed my course
a certain way; for how long I cannot tell, but these make
it all but impossible for me to continue writing 'Black
Diamonds/ ... I feel like giving up an old friend
in thus taking leave, but that the great tide of human
progress may keep flowing steadily shoreward till it
washes away all the wrong and the sin and the shame
and the misery which now exist, is now, and for ever will
be, the sincere prayer of your friend 'The Trapper. 5
Good Bye."
34
CHAPTER THREE
MID-LANARK THE SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
IN the spring of 1888 came the opportunity for which
he had been waiting and preparing, but it arose, not,
as he had hoped, in Ayrshire, but in Lanarkshire.
The resignation of Mr. Stephen Mason from the
representation of Mid-Lanark made a by-election
necessary.
The constituency was pre-eminently mining and there
was a natural expectation that the Liberal Party would
give preference to a miner as candidate. Almost as a
matter of course Hardie's name was suggested and a
requisition numerously signed by electors in the
Division was presented to him, requesting him to stand
as Labour candidate. In "The Miner" he made known
his attitude. "For the first time, so far as Scotland is
concerned, a serious attempt is to be made to run
a genuine Labour candidate for the constituency, and
my own name has been put forward in that connection.
I desire to define my position clearly. I earnestly
desire to see Labour represented in Parliament by
working men. Should the choice of the electors fall on
me, I am prepared to fight their battle. Should another
be selected by them, I will give that other as hearty and
ungrudging support as one man can give another. The
constituency is essentially one for returning a Labour
candidate. Much depends on the position taken up by
the Liberal Association. It may or may not select a
Labour candidate. In either case my advice would be
35
J. KEIR HARDIE
that the Labour candidate should be put forward.
Better split the party now, if there is to be a split, than
at a general election, and if the Labour Party only make
their power felt now, terms will not be wanting when
the general election comes."
The prospect of the contest aroused widespread
interest. It was recognised that, not only the
Liberal professions in favour of Labour representation,
but the workers themselves, were to be tested, and that,
in the result, it would be shown whether in a typical
working-class constituency the workers were yet ready
to use their newly-acquired political power in the
interest of their own class and irrespective of old party
traditions. The press immediately got busy. The
Scottish Liberal papers, "The Glasgow Daily Mail"
and the "Scottish Leader," began to confuse the issues,
to put forward the names of various middle-class
candidates, to besmirch and misrepresent Hardie, and
to talk about "Tory gold." On the other hand the
London "Star" wrote as follows: "Mr. Hardie is
certainly the best man for the constituency. One or
two of his stamp are greatly needed to look after Scottish
Labour interests in Parliament, especially as those
interests are about to lose the advocacy of Mr. Stephen
Mason."
The Tory "Ayrshire Post" said: "Among the
candidates brought forward for the expected vacancy in
Mid-Lanark, through the retirement of Mr. Stephen
Mason, is Mr. J. Keir Hardie, Cumnock. A corre-
spondent interested in the election asks us whether there
is any truth in the rumour that Mr. Hardie was a
Unionist in 1886. The rumour is an absurd one. Mr.
Hardie has been a consistent and pronounced Home
Ruler since the beginning of the controversy. What-
ever faults he may have, sitting on the hedge is not one
36
MID-LANARK
of them. Right or wrong, you know what he means."
So began the campaign of lies and innuendo of which
he was to have a plentiful experience in future years,
and the very fact that the Tory press was inclined to
speak of him respectfully was adduced as proof that he
was in league with the Tories.
Hardie pursued his way steadily, unmoved by any
calumny. On the I5th March he offered himself as a
candidate for selection by the Mid-Lanark Liberal
Association. On the 2ist of the same month he with-
drew his name from the official list for the following
reasons. 'The Executive of the Association, without
giving the electors a chance of deciding on the merits
of the respective candidates, have already, at the
instance of outsiders, and without regard to fitness,
decided who the candidate is to be." The Liberal
candidate finally adopted was Mr. J. W. Phillips, a
young Welsh lawyer, who ultimately made his way to
the House of Lords as Lord St. Davids. The Tory
candidate was Mr. W. R. Bousfield. Hardie stood
therefore as an Independent Labour candidate,
the first of the kind in British politics; and for
that reason, if for no other, this Mid-Lanark election
is historical. As a Labour candidate but, be it noted,
not yet as a Socialist, did he stand. In his letter to the
Liberal Association, he claimed that he had all his life
been a Radical of a somewhat advanced type, and from
the first had supported Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule
proposals. In his election address he said, "I adopt in
its entirety the Liberal programme agreed to at
Nottingham, which includes Adult Suffrage; Reform of
Registration Laws; Allotments for Labourers; County
Government; London Municipal Government; Free
Education; Disestablishment. On questions of general
politics I would vote with the Liberal Party, to which I
E 37
J. KEIR HARDIE
have all my life belonged." His proposals for Labour
and Land legislation, though going far beyond the
Liberal programme, were not at all comprehensively
Socialistic. An Eight Hours' Day for Miners, an
Insurance and Superannuation Fund supported from
Royalties, Arbitration Courts, and the creation of a
Ministry of Mines were his mining proposals; the
reimposition of the four shillings in the pound Land
Rent, payable by the landlord to the State, the estab-
lishment of a Land Court, compulsory cultivation of
waste lands, taxation of land values and nationalisation
of royalties were his land programme. On the
question of Home Rule he said, "I will support the
Irish Party in winning justice for Ireland, and in the
event of a difference between them and the Liberal
Party, would vote with the Irish' J ; and to this he added,
"I am also strongly in favour of Home Rule for Scot-
land, being convinced that until we have a Parliament
of our own, we cannot obtain the many and great
reforms on which I believe the people of Scotland have
set their hearts."
; His chief appeal however for differentiation as
between himself and the other candidates was on the
ground of class representation. He submitted an
analysis of all the interests represented in Parliament,
showing that out of the 72 members sent from Scotland,
not one represented the working people. "Why is it,"
he asked, "that in the richest nation in the world those
who produce the wealth should alone be poor? What
help can you expect from those who believe they can
only be kept rich in proportion as you are kept poor?
'Few save the poor feel for the poor, the rich know not how
hard,
It is to be of needful food and needful rest debarred. '
38
MID-LANARK
"I ask you therefore to return to Parliament a man of
yourselves, who being poor, can feel for the poor, and
whose whole interest lies in the direction of securing for
you a better and a happier lot?"
Encouragement came from many quarters.
The recently formed Labour Electoral Association,
which during this election assumed the title of National
Labour Party, sent through its treasurer, Edward
Harford, 400 with the assurance : "You can have
more if needed. .
-This body subsequently proved itself unable to stand
the strain of divided allegiance to Liberalism and
Labour. The secretary, T. R. Threlfall, wrote declaring
the election to be "particularly a test question as to how
far the professed love of the Liberal Party for Labour
representation is a reality."
The Scottish Home Rule Association, both through
its Edinburgh and its London Committees, adopted him
as its candidate, the Metropolitan section passing the
following resolution, "That this meeting hails with
gratitude the appearance of Mr. J. K. Hardie, the tried
and trusted champion of the rights of the Scottish
Miners, as a Labour candidate for Mid-Lanark, and
trusts that the working men in that constituency will
rally round him and do themselves the honour of
returning the first genuine Labour representative for
Scotland." In transmitting the resolution, the Sec-
retary, J. Ramsay MacDonald, sent the follow-
ing letter, the terms of which he himself has
probably long ago forgotten. As this was the first
correspondence between two men who were later to be
in close comradeship, it is set down here for preserva-
tion. It shows, amongst other things, that Mac-
Donald, like Hardie, had not yet lost hope in the
Liberal Party.
39
J. KEIR BARDIE
"Scottish Home Rule Association.
"23 Kelly Street, Kentish Town, London.
"Mr. J. Keir Hardie,
"Dear Mr. Hanfie, I cannot refrain from wishing you
God-speed in your election contest. Had I been able
to have gone to Mid-Lanark to help you to do so both
by Srord and deed* would have given very great
pleasure indeed. The powers of darkness Scottish
newspapers with English editors (as the 'Leader'),
partisan wire-pullers, and the other etceteras of political
squabbles are leagued against us.
"But let the consequences be what they may, do not
withdraw. The cause of Labour and of Scottish
Nationality will suffer much thereby. Your defeat will
awaken Scotland, and your victory will re-construct
Scottish Liberalism. All success be yours, and the
National cause yon champion. There is no miner
and no other erne for that matter who is a Scotsman
and not ashamed of it, who will vote against you in
favour of an obscure English barrister, absolutely
ignorant of Scotland and of Scottish affairs, and who
only wants to get to Parliament in order that he may
have the tail of M.P. to his name in the law courts.
I am, Dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
"J. RAMSAY MAcDoKALO,
"Hon. Secretary, S.H.R.A."
The Parliamentary Committee of the Highland Land
League, through its Chairman, J. Galloway Weir, also
endorsed the candidature. The Glasgow Trades
Council did likewise, and the Executive Council of the
British Steel Smelters' Association. Lady Florence
Dixie wrote : "If the miners put you in they will know
40
MID-LANARK
that, at least, they have a representative who will be the
slave of no Party, but who will speak fearlessly for Scot-
land and her people's interests." Cunninghame Graham
sent a characteristic epistle in which he expressed the
hope that all Scotsmen would see the importance of not
returning an Englishman, and concluded, "a good coat
is useful enough against the weather, but why poor men
should bow down and worship one, knowing that it will
not warm their backs passes my comprehension."
Hardie resisted all inducements to retire, including
an offer from the Liberal Party, the nature of which had
best be disclosed in his own words many years after-
wards.
"In 1888 I came out as the Labour candidate for the
Mid-Division of Lanarkshire. The whole story of that
campaign will be told some day Bob Smillie could tell
it but for the moment I confine myself to one little
incident. Mr. T. R. Threlfall, Secretary to the Labour
Electoral Association, came North to take part in the
contest. One evening Threlfall did not turn up at
the meeting for which he was advertised, and shortly
after I got back from my round he turned up at the hotel
bubbling over with excitement. 'I've settled it,' he
cried excitedly. 'I've been in conference with them all
the evening, and it's all fixed up.* 'In conference
with whom, and settled what?' I asked. 'In con-
ference with the Liberals,' he replied, 'at the George
Hotel, and you've to retire.' I don't quite know what
happened then, but I remember rising to my feet and
Threlfall ceased speaking. Next morning he returned
home to Southport. On the day of his departure
Mr. Schnadhorst, the then chief Caucusmonger of the
Liberals, invited me to meet him at the George Hotel.
I replied that I was quite prepared to receive in writing
anything he had to say. The following day, Mr.
41
J. KEIR HARDIE
C. A. V. Conybeare, then M.P. for the Camborne
Division of Cornwall, induced me to pay a visit to
Sir George Trevelyan, also at the George Hotel. Sir
George was very polite, and explained the unwisdom
of Liberals and Labour fighing each other. They
wanted more working men in Parliament, and if only I
would stand down in Mid-Lanark he would give me an
assurance that at the General Election I would be
adopted somewhere, the party paying my expenses,
and guaranteeing me a yearly salary three hundred
pounds was the sum hinted at as they were doing
for others (he gave me names). I explained as well as
I could why his proposal was offensive, and though
he was obviously surprised, he was too much of a
gentleman to be anything but courteous. And so the
fight went on."
The contest was fought with great bitterness,
especially on the part of the Liberals, who did not
scruple to introduce sectarian and religious animosities,
and who were able to make great play with the Irish
Home Rule question in a constituency where the Irish
electorate bulked largely. The United Irish League
seems to have believed implicitly at that time in the
willingness and ability of Mr. Gladstone to carry the
Liberal Party with him in establishing Home Rule, and
although Hardie had the support of Mr. John Ferguson,
the leading champion of the Irish cause in the West of
Scotland, and himself on the Council of the Liberal
Party, the official mandate went against Hardie. He
had thus to fight both the Liberal machine and the
Nationalist machine, and had only an impromptu
organisation wherewith to counter them. When the end
came, he got 617 votes, and the Liberal went to the
House of Commons and in due course higher up.
Looking back over the years and the events which
42
SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
separate us from this historical contest, how tragic is
"the might-have-been. "
But the election had cleared the air, and had settled
one thing for ever, the impossibility of a Labour Party
within the Liberal Party. That gives it its permanent
place in the history of the Labour movement. From that
day onward, the coming of the Independent Labour
Party was a certainty, and that it should be a Socialist
Party was equally certain from the very nature of the
political developments arising out of the competitive
commercialist system and the growing demands of the
workers for a higher standard of life, which it was quite
evident could not be realised merely through the indus-
trial organisations then existing.
The capitalist and the landowning classes both relied
upon political force for the maintenance of their privi-
leges. To combat these, Labour political force was
necessary. Only a minority of the working class
leaders were able to diagnose the disease and apply the
remedy. Amongst that minority was the defeated
Labour candidate for Mid-Lanark. Henceforth there
was to be no temporising so far as he was concerned
no accommodating other interests. The issues and the
policy were to be alike clear. A new chapter in Labour
politics was opened.
The next step was quickly taken. On May iQth,
twenty-seven men met in Glasgow. Mr. John Mur-
doch, a man well known in connection with the High-
land Crofters' agitation, sturdy in frame as in opinions,
presided, and Hardie explained the object for which
the meeting had been called, viz., the formation of a
bona fide Labour Party for Scotland. A Committee
was formed to arrange for a conference to be held with-
out delay to form such a Party. The members of the
Committee were Duncan Macpherson, Keir Hardie,
43
J. KEIR HARDIE
Charles Kennedy, George Mitchell and Robert
Hutchison. Two of these at least, Mitchell and
Hutchison, were avowed Socialists, the latter an
exceedingly able open-air speaker, who, with Bruce
Glasier, carried the Socialist message into many far
distant corners of Scotland. These two were, in fact,
the voices in the wilderness heralding the coming of
the great army of propagandists that was to follow.
Three months later, on August 25th, the Conference
was held in the Waterloo Rooms, Glasgow, and the
Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party was duly formed
and office-bearers elected. The Hon. President was
R. B. Cunninghame Graham; Hon. Vice-Presidents,
Dr. Clark, M.P., and John Ferguson. The Chair-
man of Executive was J. Shaw Maxwell, who after-
wards became first secretary of the national Independent
Labour Party. Keir Hardie was Secretary, and George
Mitchell, Treasurer. Thus one more office of responsi-
bility was added to Hardie's already numerous duties.
He was now Secretary of the Ayrshire Miners' Union,
of the Scottish Miners' Federation, of the Scottish
Parliamentary Labour Party, and editor of "The
Miner." In the creation of all these enterprises on
behalf of labour his was the active mind, and it cannot
be said that he shirked in any way his share of the toil
which their promotion involved.
Amongst those who took part in this memorable meet-
ing was a delegate from Larkhall named Robert Smillie,
who has been heard of in the world since then. Hardie
and he were already fairly close friends and fellow
workers in the common cause, and remained so till death
broke the bond of comradeship. Smillie, though still
working in the pits, was, at the period of this meeting, al-
ready busy organising the Lanarkshire miners and serving
them in a representative capacity on the Larkhall School
44
SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
Board. In such probationary ways and through such
manifold experiences do working class leaders evolve.
This is the kind of service for which the qualifying
degrees do not emanate from any university, though the
university might be helpful if it were available.
The newly formed party discussed and adopted a
lengthy and detailed programme which need not be
reproduced here. The most far-reaching of the pro-
posals, such as the "State acquisition of railways, and
all other means of transit," "A National Banking Sys-
tem and the Issue of State Money only," remain yet
unfulfilled, though now well within the range of practical
politics. The formulation of these demands thirty
years ago indicates how far these men were in advance
of their time, and in what manner they were feeling
their way towards a statement of Socalist aims which,
by its very practicality, would be acceptable to their
fellow workmen. They were not dreamers by any
means. They were out for realities. They related the
hard road at their feet with the justice they saw on the
horizon.
Following close upon this memorable meeting at
Glasgow, came the annual Trades Union Congress * ./
held that year at Bradford. Hardie was a delegate and
much in evidence in the debates, being practically lead-
ing spokesman for the advanced section, who made use
of the Congress as a propaganda platform in favour of
Parliamentary Labour Representation and the Legal
Eight Hours' Day. He also presided at an outside)
fraternising meeting of French and British delegates
for the purpose of mutual enlightenment on the progress
of the working-class movement in both countries.
Already he was beginning to be recognised by Euro-
pean working-class leaders as representative of the most
progressive and the most fearless elements in the British
45
J. KEIR HARDIE
Labour movement, and for his part, he was eager to
know and understand the conditions under which they
had to carry on the struggle against the forces of capital-
ism; he was also, perhaps, desirous of, to some extent,
taking the measure of the personalities who were in the
forefront of that battle. He had an opportunity of
extending his knowledge at an International Confer-
ence which took place in London the following Novem-
Ker. This was Hardie's first International, and for that
^/reason it is of importance for this memoir, but also for
other reasons. It was not a fully representative Confer-
ence, the German Social Democrats having decided not
to take part through some misunderstanding, which need
not be discussed now after all these years, but which
called for an explanatory circular from the "Socialist
members of the German Reichstag" addressed to "Our
Socialist comrades, and the workers of all countries,"
and including amongst its signatures the names of two
men who take rank amongst the great ones of the
wide-world Socialist movement, William Liebknecht
and August Bebel. The Conference was called by the
Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Con-
gress, and was really a Trade Union, rather than a
Socialist, International. Naturally, the British dele-
gates were largely in the majority, being seventy-nine
in number as compared with eighteen from France which
sent the next largest number. Holland sent thirteen,
Belgium ten, Denmark two, Italy one.
There does not appear to have been any representa-
tion from Austria, or Hungary, or Switzerland, or any of
the Balkan countries. Hardie's observations, compar-
ing the British with the foreigners may be quoted, if
for no other purpose than to illustrate his opinions con-
cerning the British Trade Union movement of that
V time. Describing the reception in Westminster Palace
46
SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
Hotel, he says: "How different we are after all from
our neighbours. They are gay, light, volatile, ever
ready to flare up into a passion at a moment's notice;
we, stolid (stupid, someone called it), heavy, dullish,
slow to anger (the chairman excepted), and not at all
like men in earnest. Certainly these foreigners know
what they are about. They have made up their minds
as to what they want, and mean to have it. They are
Socialists to a man, and have the fiery zeal which always
characterises earnest men who are fighting for a princi-
ple. Probably some of the earlier trade unionists of
this country exhibited the same characteristics, but now
that the leader of a Trade Union is the holder of a fat,
snug office, concerned only in maintaining the respecta-
bility of the cause, all is changed. Theirs (the
foreigners) may be a madness without method, ours is
a method without life. A fusion of the two would be
beneficial all round."
Then he goes on to characterise the notables present
at the Congress, his reference to some of the home-made
ones being rather more caustic than was necessary, but
interesting, nevertheless; in view of their subsequent
careers.
"The Chairman, Mr. George Shipton, of the London
Trades Council, has much to do to keep things in order;
next him Mr. Broadhurst, Secretary. On the floor, Mr.
Burt, philosophic and gentle-looking as ever, taking no
part in the proceedings, but, like the sailor's parrot,
thinking a lot; Mr. Fenwick, too, growing visibly larger,
much to his regret; Mr. Abraham, 5ft. by 4ft., correct
measurement, so that he is not so broad as he is long,
though I should say he soon will be; his voice is scarcely
so clear as it once was, but he himself is bright, cheerful
and full of bonhomie as ever. There too, was Miss
Edith Simcox, with her strong, sympathetic face.
47
J. KEIR HARDIE
('Done more for the unskilled workers than all the Par-
liamentary Committee put together/ is the remark of one
who knows.) Mrs. Besant attends as frequently as she
can. She is not tall, and has a slight stoop, probably
the result of a too close application at her desk; wears
her hair short, and has on a red Tam-o'-Shanter; silver
streaks are not wanting among her tresses. Miss Chap-
man sits wearily through several sittings, wondering
what it is all about. She is president of the Match Girls'
Union, and is a tall, good-looking lassie, with dark and
clear-cut features, despite Bryant & May and their
twenty-two per cent. John Burns keeps running about
and appears to know everybody. He is an Ayrshire
Scotchman of the third generation. A thick-set, black
tyke he is, with a voice of slightly modulated thunder and
a nature as buoyant as a schoolboy's. Among the
foreigners is Anseele of Belgium, probably their best
man. He has 'done' his six months in jail for siding with
the workers, but that has not daunted him any. His power
of speech is amazing, and, as he closes his lips with a snap
at the end of each sentence, he seems to say, 'There ! I
have spoken and I mean it. J He is young, vigorous,
and talented, and destined to make his mark. Next in
importance is Hoppenheimer of Paris. Tall and good-
looking, with a head of hair like a divot. He has seen
much life and is greatly trusted by his fellows. Christi-
son is a typical Dane with a bullet head and more given
to action than talking. Mr. Adolph Smith made a
capital interpreter. Lazzari the Italian is easily known.
He wears leather leggings, a black cloak thrown over
his shoulders and a slouch hat. He has only recently
come out of prison, and is quite prepared to be sent back
on his return home. His face is long and sallow; his
eyes dark and bright, and as he stalks about with a
swinging gait, or lounges against a pillar smoking a
SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
cigarette, I call to mind the stories of long ago in which
just such a picture figured in my mind's eye as the cruel
brigand. Many others might be mentioned, but space
is limited."
The foregoing appeared in "The Miner," and it
justifies the belief that if Hardie had not been so absorbed
in the cause of Labour, he might have been a prince of
journalists.
Hardie was very much to the front at this Conference,
which for a whole day discussed "the best means for
removing the obstacles to free combination amongst the
workers in continental countries," and the following
morning on Hardie's recommendation carried the fol-
lowing resolution : "The Labour parties in the different
countries are requested to put on their programme, and
work for, by agitation, the abolition of all laws pro-
hibiting or hampering the free right of association
and combination, national and international, of the
workers."
On the question of methods he put forward the follow-
ing proposals, a perusal of which by our modern indus-
trial unionists may indicate to them that the idea under-
lying their policy is not so very novel after all.
"First. That all unions of one trade in one country
combine in electing an Executive Central body
for that trade in that country.
"Second. That the Central bodies of the various
trades in the different countries elect a General
Council for all trades.
".Third. That the Central bodies of the various trades
in the different countries shall meet in Confer-
ence annually and an International Conference
shall be held at intervals of not less than three
years."
49
J. KEIR HARDIE
There was here the conception of an international
industrial power capable of being called into action at
any given moment of great crisis, which, if it could have
materialised in the form, say, of a general strike, might
long ago have completely shattered militarism and made
impossible the 1914 European calamity, while it would
also have undermined the very foundations of capital-
ism. That it did not materialise is no fault of Keir
Hardie. That he was capable of formulating it is
proof of his greatness of vision, even if it implied
a faith in organised mass intelligence for which
working-class environment and tradition gave little
justification. To have dreamed the dream was worth
while, even if the realisation thereof may be for
other generations.
Hardie's resolutions were not carried, but in their
stead a long resolution from the foreigners, to which
Hardie had no objections and which, according to his
summary of it, "provided for the organisation of all
workers, the appointment of National Committees, the
formation of a distinct political Labour Party, and the
holding, if possible, of a yearly International Congress,
the next one to meet in Paris the following year." The
Conference also decided in favour of a maximum eight
hours' day, and, on the motion of Mr. Burt, it resolved :
'That arbitration should be substituted for war in the
settlement of disputes between nations." Hardie's con-
cluding comments are noteworthy. "The Conference
is over. We know each other better. Socialism is in
the ascendant and everybody knows it. The marching
order has been given, and it is 'Forward !' Henceforth
there can be no alienation between British and Con-
tinental workers. The Broadhurst school have now Hob-
son's choice facing them accept the new gospel or go
down before those who will."
50
SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
Thus ended the activities of the year 1888 with a
declaration of Socialism. It had been a tremendous
year for Hardie. Packed full of striving from beginning
to end, and marking the beginnings of new endeavours
which were to engross him henceforth all the days of
his life. He had fought his first parliamentary contest.
He had thrown down the gauntlet to the existing political
parties, and to those working-class leaders who adhered
to them. He had joined hands with the overseas fighters
for freedom. He had become international. He had
embraced Socialism. He had raised up against him in
his own country hosts of enemies, but he had also secured
troops of friends. The battle was drawn and he took
joy in it. Let us have a square look at him, as he
appeared at this time to one who was fairly closely
associated with him in some of these public events.
Mr. Cunninghame Graham, shortly after Keir Hardie's
death, and for the purpose of this memoir, supplied the
following vivid impression :
"I first met Keir Hardie about the year 1887 or 1888.
He was at that time, in conjunction with Chisholm
Robertson, one of the chief miners' leaders in the West
of Scotland. I first saw him at his home in Cumnock.
I spoke to him for the first time in the office of a paper
he was connected with, I think The Miner' or 'Cum-
nock News. 5 He was then about thirty years of age,
[ should judge, but old for his age. His hair was al-
ready becoming thin at the top of the head, and receding
from the temples. His eyes were not very strong.
At first sight he struck you as a remarkable man. There
was an air of great benevolence about him, but his face
showed the kind of appearance of one who has worked
hard and suffered, possibly from inadequate nourishment
in his youth. He was active and alert, though not
athletic. Still, he appeared to be full of energy, and
Si
-J. KEIR HARDIE -
as subsequent events proved, he had an enormous power
of resistance against long, hard an3 continual work. I
should judge him to have been of a very nervous and
high-strung temperament. At that time, and I believe
up to the end of his life, he was an almost ceaseless
smoker, what is called in the United States 'a chain
smoker.' He was a very strict teetotaller and remained
so to the end, but he was not a bigot on the subject and
was tolerant of faults in the weaker brethren. Nothing
in his address or speech showed his want of education
in his youth. His accent was of Ayrshire. I think he
took pride in it in his ordinary conversation. He could,
however, to a great extent throw this accent aside, but
not entirely. When roused or excited in public or
private speech it was always perceptible. His voice was
high-pitched but sonorous and very far-carrying at that
time. He never used notes at that time, and I think
never prepared a speech, leaving all to the inspiration
of the moment. This suited his natural, unforced
method of speaking admirably. He had all the charm
and some of the defects of his system. Thus, though
he rose higher than I think it is possible to rise when
a speech is prepared or committed to memory, he was
also subject to very flat passages when he was not, so
to speak, inspired. His chief merits as a speaker were,
in my opinion, his homeliness, directness and sincerity;
and his demerits were a tendency to redundancy and
length, and a total lack of humour, very rare in an Ayr-
shire Scot. This was to me curious, as he had a con-
siderable vein of pathos. He always opened his speeches
in those days with 'Men,' and finished with 'Now,
men. J This habit, which he also followed in his private
speech when two or three were gathered together-
used to give great offence to numbers of paternal capital-
ists, baillies, councillors, and other worthy men who
52
SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
had not much mental culture and failed to detect
Hardie's sincerity, and took the familiar 'men' as
something too familiar for their conversing. Hardie's
dress at this time was almost always a navy blue serge
suit with a hard bowler hat. His hair was never worn
long and his beard was well-trimmed and curly. Later
on, to the regret of the 'judicious,' he affected a different
style of dressing entirely foreign to his custom when a
little-known man. He was then, and I believe always,
an extremely abstemious eater, and in the long peregrin-
ations about the mining villages of Lanarkshire and
Ayrshire, when I was a young, unknown M.P. and he
an equally unknown miners' leader, in rain and wind,
and now and then in snow, an oatcake, a scone, a bit
of a kebbuck of cheese always contented him. He
would then sit down by the fireside in the cottage in the
mining row, and light up his corn-cob pipe and talk of
the future of the Labour Party, which in those days
seemed to the miners a mere fairy tale. Now and then
I have seen him take the baby from the miner's wife,
and dandle it on his knee whilst she prepared tea.
' 'He had the faculty of attracting children to him,
and most certainly he 'forbade them not.' They would
come round him in the miners' cottages and lean against
him for the first few minutes. One felt he was a 'family
man' and so, I suppose, did the children."
Allowing for one or two inaccuracies such as that
he was an Ayrshire Scot and "totally lacking in
humour," the foregoing may be taken as a tolerably
faithful pen-portrait of Keir Hardie in his prime, and
presents characteristic features recognisable by his later
associates, though deepened and strengthened by the
stress of conflict in the wider field upon which he was
now entering. It is the portrait of a very earnest, sincere
man; resolute and strong, yet tender and kindly, and
F 53
J. KEIR HARDIE
making the most of his opportunities and his gifts in the
interest of his "ain folk," the working class. It would
be helpful if some graphic pen could re-envisage for us
the wider environment, beyond Lanarkshire and Ayr-
shire, which together with these local conditions and
these local struggles, was moulding the character and
determining the purpose of Hardie and many other
rdent spirits at that time.
It is curious to note how unobservant of the potential
significance of these Labour movements were the con-
temporary publicists and historians. Justin McCarthy's
4 'History of Our Own Times," for example, though it
comes down to 1897, makes only the most casual five-
word reference in recording the death of Cardinal
Manning to the London Dock Strike, and makes no
mention of the sympathetic strikes all over the country
which followed it. It does not record the imprisonment
of Cunninghame Graham and John Burns in mainten-
ance of the right of free speech. It says nothing
about the "new Unionism" movement which signalised
the entrance into organised industrialism, and thereby
into the political field, of the great mass of unskilled
workers. It does not chronicle the formation of the
Social Democratic Federation, or of the Fabian
Society, or of the I.L.P. It passes all these events by
unnoticed as if they had nothing whatever to do with
the history of our own times, and fails to perceive that
they were the beginners of the new social and political
forces which were bound, in the very nature of things,
to challenge the permanency of the existing order, and
become the source of whatever has to be told in the
history of the times after our own.
It was a time of turmoil and strife, but also of hope
for labouring people, whose most thoughtful representa-
tives were testing and experimenting with new mediums
54
SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
for giving expression and effect to the aspirations of
their class. New organisations were born and lived a
little while and then died, but always left behind them
some foundations and corner stones for future builders.
Labour Electoral Associations, National Labour
Parties, Sons of Labour modelled on the American
Knights of Labour Hardie was willing to try them all,
and also ready to associate with the pioneers and pro-
pagandists whom these organisations called into
activity. Very remarkable personalities some of them
indeed were, though not all with horny hands or toil-
furrowed faces. Keen, intellectual, purposeful, they
carried their message alike to the street corners of the
great cities and the village greens of remote country
districts. They brought Socialism into the market
place. They elbowed their way into Radical Associa-
tions and into Tory Clubs, nor disdained the rostrum of
the Y.M.C.A. or the Mutual Improvement Society.
Their purpose was to break through the old habits of
thought, to undermine stereotyped party formulas, to
prepare the way for the new times.
Greatly varied in origin, in temperament, in charac-
ter, in talents, were these men of the advanced guard of
the modern British Socialist movement H. H. Cham-
pion, ex-army officer, in appearance, patrician to the
finger tips, cool as an iceberg, yet emitting red-hot
revolution in the placid accents of clubland; Tom
Mann, a working engineer, fresh from the <c tanner-an-
hour" dock strike, with all its honours full upon him,
vigorous, eloquent, strong-lunged, rich-toned, speaking
as easily in an amphitheatre as Champion could do in
a drawing room, the very embodiment, it seemed, of the
common people ; Bruce Glasier, a designer and architect,
somewhat angular in physical outline, pale of face,
yet withal picturesquely attractive at a street corner with
55
J. KEIR HARDIE
the breeze dishevelling his hair and carrying his high-
pitched, musical tones to the far end of the street, his
artistic fusing of poetry, economics and politics com-
pelling even the Philistines to stand and listen; James
Connolly, a labourer from the Edinburgh Cleansing
Department a most un-Celtic-like personality, slow and
difficult of utterance, yet undeterred by any disability
either of physique or training from delivering his mes-
sage, a very encyclopaedia of statistical facts and figures
and of Marxian economics, a victimised industrial martyr
even then, but with nothing either in his demeanour or in
his political views foreshadowing his tragic and heroic end
at the head of an Irish rebellion. And with these some-
times, and sometimes alone, there was a burly, thick-set
figure of a man, in blue sailor-like garb, yet withal
countrified in appearance, a ruddy-complexioned
lion-headed man, William Morris, poet, artist,
pre-Raphaelite and because he was all these and
humanitarian to boot, a Socialist. There were others
too, rough and uncultured, or refined and bookish, men
from the mine and from the factory, and the workshops
and the dockyard and the smelting furnace, working
men with active brains and great hearts, artists, dons,
professional men. Harry Quelch, Pete Curran, Bob
Hutcheson, Sandy Haddow, Bob Smillie and many
others like unto them crowded into this service. These
were the men who, with Keir Hardie, were making
Socialism in the 'eighties of the last century. He was
with them but not yet entirely of them. He was at close
grips with that form of capitalism under whose domin-
ation his lot had been cast. Fighting the coalowners and
stiffening the men, smoking his pipe in the colliery
rows and fondling the bairns, yet all the time, assimilat-
ing inspiration from the turmoil beyond, and gradually
merging himself in that turmoil. Idealist and en-
56
SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
thusiast, yet looking ever to the practical side of things
and retaining always his own individuality. The friend-
less, forlorn errand boy of Glasgow streets has come
far in these twenty-two years. He has still much farther
to go in the new world of service that is opening out
ahead of him.
57
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL WEST HAM THE I.L.P.
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
THE year 1889 is notable in Socialist history
as the year in which what is known as the
Second International was founded. Its pre-
decessor, formed in 1 1864, under the style of the
International Workingmen's Association by Karl Marx
in co-operation with George Odger, George Howell,
Robert Applegarth, and other leading British trade
unionists, together with representatives from the
Continental countries, was rent asunder by disputes
between Bakuninists and Marxists, and finally ceased to
exist in 1876. But the principles and the purpose which
inspired it could not, and cannot, be destroyed. Inter-
national war, the Franco-Prussian, had, for the time
being, defeated international working-class solidarity,
as it has once again may we hope for the last time-
in these recent terrible years. The idea of co-ordinated
international class effort based upon communion of
interests is one of those ideas which, once enunciated,
are indestructible except through the disappearance of
class. The slogan of the Communist Manifesto,
"Workers of the world unite/' sounded by Marx twenty
years before the first International was formed, may be
temporarily overwhelmed by militarist and nationalist
war cries, but it re-asserts itself, and must do so until
it becomes the ascendant, dominant note in humanity's
marching tune.
58
THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL
The call for international working-class unity was
making itself heard once more, and this 1889 Confer-
ence in Paris was the answer to the call. Naturally,
Keir Hardie was there amongst the others. There were,
in fact, two Congresses held simultaneously, one of
purely trade union origin, arising out of the decisions
of the Conference held in London the previous year, and
the other arising out of the decisions of the -German
Working-Class Party in 1886. But for misunder-
standings, unavoidable perhaps in the early stages of
so great a thing as an international movement, there
need only have been one Congress, for both passed
the same resolutions and manifested the same
purpose, though one was labelled Possibilist, and
the other Marxist.
What is to be noted is, that Hardie attended the
avowedly Marxist Congress, thus early affirming his
allegiance to the Socialist conception of internation-
alism. Hyndman, the exponent and standard bearer in
Britain of Marxian philosophy pure and undefiled,
attended the Possibilist gathering as delegate from the
Social Democratic Federation. With him were repre-
sentatives from the Fabian Society, the Trades Union
Congress and the Trade Union movement generally,
amongst his colleagues being John Burns, Herbert Bur-
rows, Mrs. Besant, Thomas Burt, M.P., and Charles
Fenwick, M.P. Hardie, who at the other Congress
represented the Scottish Labour Party, had for com-
panions Cunninghame Graham from the same Party,
and William Morris from the Socialist League. Thus,
before any political Labour Party had been formed for
Great Britain, a Scottish Labour Party was represented
in the international movement, due undoubtedly to the
influence of its Secretary, Keir Hardie. At this Con-
gress he found himself in the company of many famous
59
J. KEIR HARDIE
leaders from other lands, including Wilhelm Lieb-
knecht, Jules Guesde, Bebel, Vollmar, Dr. Adler and
Anseele, and, W may be sure, gained education and
inspiration thereby. Both Congresses passed resolu-
tions in favour of an Eight Hours' Day, a Minimum
Wage, prohibition of child labour and unhealthy
occupations, and the abolition of standing armies;
not by any means a revolutionary programme, but one
postulating the demands upon which the organised
workers of all countries might be expected to agree.
The virtue and strength of the International was not in
its programme, but in the mere fact of its existence.
Therein lay incalculable potentialities. The Workers'
International is the adaptation of labour force to meet
the world conditions created by modern capitalism.
It challenges, not any particular form of government
here or there, in this country or in that, but the
capitalist system, which is one and the same in all
countries.
Moreover, the International differentiated itself
from other rebel movements in that it placed no reliance
on underground methods. It came out into the open.
It assumed that labour was now strong enough to stand
upright. It recognised that methods of secrecy made
national working-class co-operation impossible, and that
only by open declaration of ideals and purposes could the
people in the various countries understand and have
confidence in each other. The International was, and
is, an historic phenomenon, vastly more important than
the English Magna Charta, the American Declaration
of Independence, or the Fall of the Bastille. It is the
summation of these and other efforts towards liberty,
seeking not merely to proclaim, but to establish the
Rights of Man. Three times it has suffered eclipse.
The Communist League hardly survived its birth-hour
60
THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL
amid the storms and revolutionary turmoil of 1848. The
First International so-called went down through the
blood and fire of the Franco-Prussian War. The
Second, of which we are now speaking, was submerged
in the frenzies of a world war. Already it emerges
once again, the deathless International, and who shall
say that it will not this time accomplish its purpose?
They were strong, courageous spirits who conceived
the Workers' International and gave it form and stimu-
lus, and lifted it ever and anon out of the very jaws
of death. Amongst these Keir Hardie has a foremost
place.
The consciousness of having assisted in an event of
unparalleled importance to the working class could not
but have an expanding effect upon a mind already deeply
impressed with a sense of the greatness of the Labour
movement, and it is unfortunate that we have no per-
sonal record of his impressions at this time. He was
not much in the habit of revealing his thoughts in his
private correspondence, and his paper, "The Miner,"
having ceased to exist, we have no printed account of
the Paris Congress such as that which he gave of the
London one the previous year. It would have been
deeply interesting for us to know, not only his thoughts
about the personalities whom he met, but also how the
great city of Paris looked to the miner from Ayrshire.
That this experience constituted another s,tage in the
development of his character cannot be doubted, and the
equanimity with which in future years he was able to meet
the rebuffs, vexations and scurrilities which assailed
him in the course of his work for Socialism, derived itself
in large measure from his sense of the magnitude of the
cause to which his life was now consecrated.
At home, the chief task of Hardie and other advanced
workers was to combat the conservative elements in the
61
J. KEIR HARDIE
Labour movement itself, as exemplified in the reluctance
of the big Trade Unions to adapt themselves to the
changing economic and political conditions of the time.
After a long heroic struggle the old repressive combin-
ation laws had broken down. Trade Unionism had been
legalised, an achievement in itself marking a big step in
the advance towards liberty, but still only a step. The right
to combine, implying the right to strike, was still for large
sections of the workers only a right theoretically, as was
shown by the failure of Joseph Arch to organise the agri-
cultural labourers, and by the difficuty of incorporating in
the general Trade Union movement the immense mass of
unskilled labour, male and female, whose low standard
of wages continually imperilled the higher standard of
the organised sections. This very year another big
strike of London Dock labourers had taken place, and
there was seen amongst this class of workers much the
same sequence of events which Hardie had witnessed
amongst the miners of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, namely,
that the strike was a necessary prelude to the Trade
Union. First organise and then strike, seems logical,
but in the early stages of revolt against economic sub-
jection, necessity, not logic, is the determining factor,
and the process is first strike then organise. The strike,
resorted to in many cases in sheer desperation by
unorganised workers who have been driven to the con-
clusion that it is better to go idle and starve than to
work and starve, emphasises (whether it be partially
successful or a complete failure) the need for organisa-
tion, and later there comes the conviction that if only
the organisation can be made effective enough there will
be no need for strikes. u The strike epidemic," as the
pressmen called it, of those years, amongst dockers, gas-
workers, general labourers, seamen, match girls and
other seemingly helpless sections of the community, laid
62
THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL
the foundations for the powerful unions of the unskilled
so called which now play an equally effective part
with the craftsmen's associations in determining con-
ditions of employment. But in its immediate economic
effects the strike movement of those times did something
more than that. It demonstrated the inter-dependence
of all sections of labour, and consequently the mutuality
of the interests of all. A stoppage of labour in the dock-
yards, or on the railways, or in the coal mines throughout
the country, affected the productive capacity of engineers
and textile workers and the distributive capacity of shop-
keepers and warehousemen. It played havoc with the
idea of an aristocracy of labour. It tended to break
down class divisions within the working class. It gave
birth to the idea that the Labour cause is one and
indivisible.
Synchronising with all this industrial unrest was the
fact that the workers now possessed a large measure of
political power, and the growing feeling that some
means must be found of giving effect to it. In all their,
disputes, the workers found the Government, whether
Tory or Liberal, throwing its weight on the side of the
employers. They found that in these disputes they had
to fight both Tory and Liberal employers, that directors
and shareholders of industrial companies knew no party
politics; they even found, as in the casie of the strike
of the shamefully underpaid women at the Manningham
Mills in Yorkshire, a Liberal Cabinet Minister amongst
the sweaters. They found further, that Parliament,
though elected by the votes of the workers, made not
the slightest attempt to deal with the problem of
unemployment, but left the employers free to use
that problem with its surplusage of labour as a
weapon against the workers; and thus there began
to evolve, almost without propaganda, a belief in
63
J. KEIR HARDIE
the need for a political Labour Party an Independent
Labour Party.
Towards .the formation of such a party Hardie now
devoted all his activities. Not only on the propaganda
platform and in the Miners' Trade Union Councils, but
year by year at the annual Trades Union Congress he
had come to be regarded as the chief spokesman of the
new idea of political independence, and was the mark
for all the antagonism which that idea evoked, not only
from the capitalists and landlords, but from the working
classes themselves, and especially from those working-
class leaders who, while believing in political action,
had all their lives and with perfect sincerity been looking
towards Liberalism as the way out. These men
naturally resented any action which tended to weaken
the Liberal Party as being either treason or stupidity.
Passions were aroused and some life-long friendships
broken during this protracted struggle between the
right and left wings of the Labour movement. But
the work went on, and when the General Election of
1892 came along, sufficient progress had been made to
justify the Independents in at least a partial and tenta-
tive trial of strength at the polls, as the outcome of
which Keir Hardie found himself in Parliament.
That fact gives some measure alike of the growth of
the labour sentiment towards political independence,
and of the extent to which Hardie was now recognised
as representative not merely of a trade or section or
district, but of the Labour movement nationally.
In 1888, he had claimed the suffrages of the Lanark-
shire electors on the grounds that as a miner he was
specially qualified to deal with the interests of the miners,
and that as a Scotsman he was specially qualified to deal
with Scottish affairs. Now, four years later, he was
returned to Parliament by a constituency in which there
WEST HAM
was not a single miner and very few Scots. That the
miner from Scotland should have been able to appeal
successfully to a London community is indicative also of
a certain intellectual adaptability on his part, a capacity
for identifying himself with the mental and social out-
look of people whose environment and habits of thought
were very much different from those in which he himself
had been reared.
The success of John Burns at Battersea is not so diffi-
cult to understand. He was on his native streets,
amongst his own people, and spoke in their idioms
a Londoner pf the Londoners. Hardie was an incomer,
a foreigner almost; and his quick success in this new
field of adventure cannot be wholly accounted for, either
by the strength of the local Labour organisation, which
was only in its incipient stage, or by the intervention of
certain accidental circumstances which will be referred
to later. Hardie's personality had much to do with his
success at West Ham, and especially his power of merg-
ing himself without losing himself in the actual life of
the people whom he wished to serve.
His presence in West Ham was largely the outcome
of the Mid-Lanark contest, which had attracted the
attention of advanced politicians all over the country,
and amongst them certain democrats in this industrial
district of London who were dissatisfied with the Liberal
Party policy and were up in arms against the local
party caucus. The I.L.P. had not yet been founded,
but there was a very influential branch of the Land
Restoration League as the result of Henry George's
visit to this country some years previously, with groups
of Socialists and Radicals anxious to try conclusions
with the orthodox parties. From a committee formed
of these, Hardie received the invitation to contest the
constituency.
65
J. KEIR HARDIE
/ The rejection of financial help from Mr. Andrew
V Carnegie, and the manner of the rejection, emphasised
the fact that he was, above all things, a Labour candi-
date who was not to touch pitch, however offered. Mr.
Carnegie, who was by way of being an uncompromising
Republican, was also, as the whole world knew, a big
employer of labour in America, and as his employees at
Pittsburg were at that very time on strike and were up
against Mr. Carnegie's "live wires" and hired gunmen,
the West Ham share of the donations went to help the
strikers.
The election of Hardie and Burns was the first prac-
tical indication to the orthodox politicians that there
were new elements in society with which they would have
to reckon. Even yet they hardly realised the significance
of what had taken place. They were being kept too
busy with other matters to be able to take serious note
of the new movement. Not without reason, they were
concerned with the malcontents of Ireland more than
with the malcontents of Labour. Their last Franchise
Act had created a formidable British-Irish electorate,
able to decide the fate of governments or at least so it
seemed for a time an'd the rival competitors for parlia-
mentary power were Susy on the one hand placating the
Irishmen, and on the other stirring up and rallying all
the possible reserves of British prejudice against the
Irish. They were, in fact, endeavouring to keep the
British voters divided, no longer merely as Liberals and
Conservatives, but as Home Rulers and Unionists. In
this they were only too successful, but were too engrossed
in the congenial political manoeuvring in which British
statecraft seems to live and move and have its being,
to realise the significance of the entry into Parliament
of a man like Hardie. They were to have it fully
brought home to them within the next three years.
66
WEST HAM
That Hardie was on this occasion favoured by a cer-
tain element of luck must be admitted. The local
Liberal Party were taken at a disadvantage through the
sudden death of their selected candidate, and, with little
time to look for another and the knowledge that Hardie
had already secured a strong following, they made a
virtue of necessity, and, though never officially recog-
nising him, joined forces with the forward section. They
even persuaded themselves that Hardie could be
regarded as a Liberal Member and be subject to official
party discipline.
They had no grounds for such a belief in any utter-
ances of the Labour candidate. On the contrary, he had
made explicit declarations of his independence of party
control. C T desire/ 5 he said in his election address, <f to
be perfectly frank with the body of electors, as I have
been with my more immediate friends and supporters in
the constituency. I have all my life given an independ-
ent support to the Liberal Party, but my first concern is
the moral and material welfare of the working classes,
and if returned, I will in every case place the claims of ^
labour above those of party. Generally speaking, I
am in agreement with the present programme of the
Liberal Party so far as it goes, but I reserve to myself the
absolute and unconditional right to take such action,
irrespective of the exigencies of party welfare, as may to
me seem needful in the interests of the workers." At a
Conference of Trade Unions, Temperance Societies,
Associations and Clubs, asked if he would follow Glad-
stone, he answered : "So long as he was engaged in good
democratic work, but if he opposed Labour questions he
would oppose him or anybody else." "Would he joi
the Liberal and Radical Party?" In reply, he said
"he expected to form an Independent Labour Party"
On these conditions he entered the House of Commons
6?
J. KEIR HARDIE
untrammelled and unpledged except to his own con-
science perhaps the only free man in that assembly.
He had hardly taken his seat, and the new Govern-
ment had not even been formed, when he began to be
troublesome to the House of Commons' authorities. On
August 1 8th, we find him interrogating the Speaker as
to procedure, and as this was his first Parliamentary
utterance and foreshadows fairly well his subsequent
policy, the question may be given in full. "Mr.
Speaker/' he said, "I rise to put a question of which I
have given you private notice. Perhaps you will allow
me to offer one word of explanation as to why I put the
question. On Thursday, last week, I gave notice of an
amendment to the Address, but when the amendment
then before the House was disposed of there was so much
noise and confusion that I did not hear the main question
put, and I anticipated that to-.day there would be an
opportunity of discussing the point embodied in my
amendment. I find that under the ordinary rules of the
House there will be no such opportunity. The question
which I desire to put now, Sir, is whether, in view of the
interest which has been awakened on the question ctf hold-
ing an autumn session for the consideration of measures
designed to improve the condition of the people, there is
any way by which the sense of the House can now be
taken for the guidance of the ministry now in process of
formation?" The Speaker, as was to be expected, ruled
that the question could not be raised until a Government
had been formed. And as no autumn session was held,
it was February of next year before Hardie could begin
his Parliamentary work on behalf of the unemployed.
An incident which occurred at this time illustrates
in a very vivid way his determination to keep himself
clear of all entanglements which might in any way inter-
fere with his personal and political independence. It
68
WEST HAM
had best be described by himself, especially as his man-
ner of telling the story brings out some of those
characteristics which governed his actions all through life.
" I was elected in July, and on getting home was told
that two quaintly dressed old ladies had spent a week
in the village making very exhaustive inquiries about
my life and character. Later in the year, we were
spending a few days with my wife's mother, in Hamilton,
and learned they had been there also and had visited
my wife's mother. They told her frankly their errand.
They knew that, as a working man, I would be none
too flush of money, and they were anxious to help in
this respect, provided they were satisfied that I was
dependable. Their inquiries into my public character
were assuring, but was I a good husband? A mother-
in-law was the best authority on that.
' The upshot was that I received, through an inter-
mediary, an invitation to call upon them in Edinburgh,
which I did. They explained that from the time of the
Parnell split they had been helping to finance the
Parnellite section of the Irish Party, but that they also
wanted to help Socialism, and believed that Nationalism
and Socialism would one day be working together.
They therefore proposed to give me a written agree-
ment to pay me 300 a year so long as I remained in
Parliament, and to make provision for it being con-
tinued after they had gone. To a man without a shilling,
and the prospect of having to earn his living somehow,
the offer had its practical advantages, and I promised
to think it over. A few days later I wrote declining the
proposal, but suggesting as an alternative that they
should give the money to the Scottish Labour Party,
the I.L.P. not yet having been formed.
" But this gave mighty offence. They had all their
lives been accustomed to having things done in their
Q 69
J. KEIR HARDIE
own way, and, as I learned subsequently, their attach-
ment was to persons rather than causes. For my part,
I was probably a bit quixotic and had made up my mind
to 'gang my ain gait' without shackle or trammel of any
sort or kind. Besides, I knew that they had made a
charge against a leading member of the Land Restoration
League of having appropriated to his own use money
intended for other purposes, and I was taking no risks."
And thus it came about that for the second time Keir
Hardie had refused an income of ^300 a year. The
two elderly ladies were the Misses Kippen of Edin-
burgh, and, as will appear, they did not allow this rebuff
to destroy their interest in Hardie's career, nor in the
cause with which he was identified.
The following year, during the Parliamentary session,
an experience of another kind provided him with an
amusing indication of the insidious methods which
might be used to influence his Parliamentary conduct.
He was invited to a seance in an artist's studio, the
special inducement being the prospect of a talk with
Robert Burns. He took with him a number of friends,
Bruce Wallace, Frank Smith, S. G. Hobson and others
well known in the Labour movement of that time. The
medium delivered messages from Parnell, Bradlaugh,
Bright and other distinguished persons resident in the
spirit world, including Robert Burns, and they all
with one accord advised Hardie to vote against the
Irish Home Rule Bill ! As Hardie supported Home
Rule on every possible occasion, we must suppose that
these eminent shades were duly disgusted. Hardie
never learned who were responsible for the seance, but
they must have taken him to be a very simple-minded
person either that, or they were so themselves.
In the interval between his election and the opening
/ of his Parliamentary career, an event of even greater
70
I.L.P.
importance than his election to Parliament had taken
place. The Independent Labour Party had been
formed, and when he returned to Westminster it was
with the knowledge that there was an organised body of
support outside. Even in these first few weeks, how-
ever, he had, partly by accident and partly by design,
managed to become a conspicuous Parliamentary figure,
and to inaugurate a sartorial revolution in that highly
conventional assembly. The intrusion of the cloth cap
and tweed jacket amongst the silk hats and dress suits
was most disturbing and seemed to herald the near
approach of the time when the House of Commons
would ceas'e to be the gentlemen of England's most
exclusive club-room. It conveyed an ominous sense of
impending change, not at all modified by the fact that
the cloth cap had arrived in a two-horse brake with a
trumpeter on the box. Hardie's participation in these
shocks to the House of Commons' sense of decency was
quite involuntary. He wore the clothes which were to
him most comfortable.
The charabanc was the outcome of the enthusiasm
of a few of his working-class constituents who desired
to convey their Member to St. Stephen's in style, and
being a natural gentleman always, he accepted their
company and their equipage in the spirit in which it
was preferred. In the result, the vulgar sarcasms of
the press made him the most widely advertised Member
of the new Parliament and even for a time overshadowed
the discussion as to whether Rosebery or Harcourt
would succeed Gladstone in the premiership.
Meantime, while the press humorists were making
merry, the Independent Labour Party was getting itself
formed.
Following upon the formation of the Scottish Parlia-
mentary Labour Party, in 1888, similar organisations
71
J. KEIR HARDIE
had sprung up in various districts of England, notably
in Yorkshire and Lancashire and on the North- East
coast. All these bodies had the same object, namely, the
return to Parliament of Labour Members who would be
independent of the Liberal and Tory parties.
A most notable factor in bringing those organisations
into being was "The Workman's Times," founded in
1890, under the vigorous editorship (and latterly pro-
prietorship) of Mr. Joseph Burgess, who in due course
became a prominent personality in the Independent
Labour Party, in the formation of which he took an
active part. Though published in London, the paper,
through its localised editions, had a considerable
circulation throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire,
especially amongst the textile workers.
It consistently and ably advocated independent
Labour representation, with Socialism as the objective.
It ceased to exist in 1894, but by that time it had done
its pioneering work and helped to make an Independent
Labour Party not only possible, but inevitable.
There was also the Social Democratic Federation
operating chiefly in London, but with branches scattered
here and there throughout the country, and having the
same political objective as the others. Between all these
bodies, however, there was no organised cohesion, except
to some extent in Scotland, where the Scottish Labour
Party had brought into existence some thirty branches,
all affiliated to a Central Executive, of which
Hardie was Secretary. The time had now arrived for
''unifying all these bodies into one National Party. With
two independent Labour Members now in Parliament
(for it was fully believed that Burns, whose Socialist
declarations had been even more militant than Hardie's,
would be sturdily independent) it was felt that a strong
organisation was needed in the country to sustain and
Z*
I.L.P.
reinforce these Parliamentary representatives and to
formulate a policy which would define clearly the {
Socialist aspirations of the new movement. In Septem-^
her, the annual meeting of the Trades Union Congress
was held at Glasgow. By a greatly increased majority,
the resolution in favour of independent Labour repre-
sentation, which had been passed at three previous
meetings of the Congress, was reaffirmed, but unlike
what had happened on previous occasions it was not
allowed to fall into complete neglect. That same
day, an informal meeting of delegates favourable to the
formation of a Party in conformity with the resolution
was held, and it was decided that a conference of
advanced bodies willing to assist in promoting that
object should be called.
On January i3th and i4th, 1893, the conference was
held in the Labour Institute, Bradford. Delegates to
the number of one hundred and twenty-one mustered
from all parts of England and Scotland. All manner
of Labour and Socialist societies were represented, the
chief however being Labour clubs, branches of the
Social Democratic Federation and the Fabian Society,
the Scottish Labour Party, and several trade organisa-
tions. Keir Hardie was elected Chairman, and despite
many forebodings of dissension and failure, the gather-
ing set itself to the task of formulating a constitution
in a thoroughly earnest and harmonious spirit. The
name "Independent Labour Party," which had already
become a common appellation of the new movement and
had been assumed by many of the local clubs, was
adopted almost unanimously in preference to that of the
"Socialist Labour Party."
Without hesitation, however, the Conference declared
the primary object of the Party to be the "collective^
N ownership and control of the means of production, dis-
73
J. KEIR HARDIE
tribution, and exchange." Thus, though rejecting the
word Socialist from its title, the Party became an
avowedly Socialist or Social Democratic organisation.
Among the delegates present at this historic Conference
were Bernard Shaw, Robert Blatchford, Pete Curran,
Robert Smillie, Katherine St. John Conway (afterwards
Mrs. Bruce Glasier), F. W. Jowett, Joseph Burgess,
James Sexton, Ben Tillett, Russell Smart, and many
other notable workers for Socialism.
Mr. Shaw Maxwell, well known in Glasgow Labour
circles, but at that time resident in London, was appointed
Secretary, and Mr. John Lister, of Halifax, Treasurer.
The National Administrative Council consisted of dele-
gates representing the London District, the Midland
Counties, the Northern Counties, and Scotland, their
names being : Katherine St. John Conway, Dr. Aveling,
son-in-law of Karl Marx, Pete Curran, Joseph Burgess,
Alfred Settle, William Johnson, W. H. Drew, J. C.
Kennedy, George S. Christie, A. Field, A. W. Buttery,
William Small, George Carson and R. Chisholm
Robertson.
Not all of those who took part in these memorable
proceedings were able to continue their allegiance
through the years of storm and trouble which followed.
Robert Blatchford, failing to get the constitution made
as watertight against compromise as he desired, in due
course seceded. Others fell away for exactly the
opposite reason, because the constitution, from their
point of view, lacked elasticity. On the whole, however,
the defectionists were comparatively few, and even
they could not undo the work they had helped to accom-
plish in those two eventful days in Bradford. They had
founded one of the most remarkable organisations that
has ever existed in this or any other country a political
party and something more a great social fellowship,
74
I.L.P.
joining together in bonds of friendship all its adherents
in every part of the land and forming a communion
comparable to that of some religious fraternity whose
members have taken vows of devotion to a common
cause.
This fraternal spirit was the outcome of the nature and
method of the propaganda carried on by the new Party
and of the character of the propagandists, who were
mostly of the rank and file; and also of the character of
the Party newspaper, which made its appearance almost
simultaneously with the Party itself. The "Labour
Leader," promoted by the Scottish Labour Party on the
initiative of Hardie, and edited by him, came out as a
monthly periodical devoted to the interests of the I.L.P.
On entering Parliament, he had quickly realised that
if he were to be able to stand there alone, ostracised as
he was sure to be by all the other parties, and subject
to the misrepresentations of the entire political press,
he would require at least one newspaper which would
keep him right with his own people. Its most valuable
feature for promoting a sense of unity and fellowship
amongst the readers consisted in the brief reports of the
doings of the branches in the various districts, whereby
they were brought together, so to speak, all the year
round. Men and women who had never met face to face,
nevertheless got to feel an intimate comradeship the one
with the other.
During the first year, the "Labour Leader" was pro-
duced monthly, and afterwards weekly. It had, as we
shall see, amongst its contributors writers and artists of
great ability, some of them perhaps with a greater literary
gift than Hardie himself, but throughout it continued to
be mainly the expression of Hardie' s personality. It
came to be spoken of by friends and enemies alike as
"Keir Hardie's paper. 55
75
J. KEIR HARDIE
At this period he had good reason to be satisfied with
the way things were going. He had gained a footing in
Parliament, and had sufficient confidence in himself to
believe that from that position he could command the
attention of the nation to the questions in which he was
interested. The political party for which he had
laboured incessantly during five strenuous years, had
now come into existence and promised to become a
power in the land. And he had control of a newspaper
which, though limited in size and circulation, yet enabled
him to reach that section of the community whose support
he most valued. All this meant more and ever more
work, but he was not afraid of work. It was the kind
of work he loved, for the people he loved. It was the
work for which he believed himself fitted and destined.
And in this frame of mind he prepared to resume his
Parliamentary duties.
Hardie had no illusions as to the kind of environment
into which he was now entering and certainly had no
expectations that the new Government would willingly
provide him with opportunities for realising his avowed
purpose of forming a new party in the House. The
Tory opposition was simply the usual Tory opposition
with only one immediate object in view, to defeat the
Government and step into its place. On both sides all
the vested interests of capital and land were strongly
represented. There were fifteen avowed Labour Mem-
bers in the House, but of these only three had been
returned independent of party John Burns, J. Have-
lock Wilson and Hardie himself. The others had long
ago proved themselves to be very plastic political
material. It was hoped that the three Independents
would hold together, but that had yet to be proved or
disproved. Hardie was not disposed to wait too long
for developments. The unemployed were demon-
HOUSE OF COMMONS
strating daily on the Embankment and he had pledged
himself to raise the question of unemployment. What-
ever the others might do, he was going to keep his word.
The Government, playing for time to produce its
Home Rule measure, had in the Queen's Speech out-
lined a colourless legislative programme which, while
referring vaguely to agricultural depression, quite
ignored the industrial distress. Upon this omission
Hardie based his initial appeal to the House of
Commons.
On February ;th, 1893, he made his first speech in the
House of Commons in moving the following amend-
ment to the Address : "To add, 'And further, we humbly
desire to express our regret that Your Majesty has not
been advised when dealing with agricultural depression
to refer also to the industrial depression now prevailing
and the widespread misery due to large numbers of the
working class being unable to find employment, and
direct Parliament to legislate promptly and effectively
in the interests of the unemployed.' There was a
large attendance of members curious to see how this
reputed firebrand would comport himself in the legislative
chamber. If there were any there who expected, and
perhaps hoped, to hear a noisy, declamatory utterance s
in consonance with their conception of working-class
agitational oratory, they were disappointed. He spoke
quietly and argumentatively, but with an earnestness
which held the attention of the House.
"It is a remarkable fact," he began, "that the speech
of Her Majesty should refer to one section of industrial
distress and leave the other altogether unnoticed, and
there are some of us who think that, if the interests of
the landlords were not bound up so closely with the
agricultural depression, the reference even to the agricul-
tural labourers would not have appeared in the Queen's
77
J. KEIR HARDIE
speech." He went on to justify his action in moving
the amendment by referring to his election pledges to
raise the question of unemployment in Parliament. He
spoke of the extent of the evil and quoted the trade
union returns to show that 1,300,000 workers were in
receipt of out-of-work pay, and he based upon these and
Poor Law statistics, the statement that not less than
4,000,000 people were without visible means of support.
His amendment had been objected to, he said, because
it contained no specific proposal for dealing with the evil.
Had it done so it would have been objected to still more,
because every one who wanted to find an excuse for not
voting for the amendment would have discovered it
in whatever proposals he might have made. The
House would agree that he had high authority
in this House for "not disclosing the details of
our proposals until we are in a position to give effect to
them" which was not quite in his power yet. Mean-
time, the Government, being a large employer of labour,
might do something for the immediate relief of the dis-
tress then prevailing. It could abolish overtime, about
which he had heard complaints. It could increase the
minimum wage of labourers in the dockyards and arsenals
to sixpence per hour, and it could enact a forty-eight
hour week for all Government employees. It had been
estimated that, were the hours of railway servants reduced
to eight per day, employment would be found for 150,000
extra workingmen. The Government might also establish
what is known as home colonies on the idle lands about
which they heard so much discussion in that House.
One of the most harrowing features connected with the
problem of the unemployed was not the poverty or the
hardship they had to endure, but the fearful moral degrad-
ation that followed in the train of enforced idleness. In
every season of the year and in every condition of trade,
78
HOUSE OF COMMONS
men were unemployed. The pressure under which)
industry was carried on to-day necessitated that the young
and the strong and the able should have preference in
obtaining employment, and if the young, the strong and
the able were to have the preference, then the middle-
aged and the aged must, of necessity, be thrown on the
street. They were now discussing an address of thanks
to Her Majesty for her speech. He wanted to ask the
Government, what have the unemployed to thank Her
Majesty for in the speech which had been submitted
to the House? Their case was overlooked and ignored.
They were left out as if they did not exist.
This amendment was seconded by Colonel Howard
Vincent, a Tory Member, and in the division he had the
support of many Tories who were, doubtless, more
anxious to weaken the Government than to help the
unemployed, Sir John Gorst being probably the only
member of that Party who was sincere in his approval
of Hardie's action. John Burns did not take part in the
debate, while Cremer, a Liberal-Labour Member and
actually one of the founders of the International, spoke
against the amendment and explained that he had
already put himself "right with his constituents,"; so
that, literally, Hardie stood alone as an Independent
Labour representative voicing the claims of the
unemployed worker in his first challenge to capital-
ism upon the floor of the House of Commons.
One hundred and nine Members voted with Hardie,
276 against him. - The division was mainly on
party lines. He had proved that honesty is the
best tactics and had successfully exploited the
party system for his own purpose. The spectacle of
the Liberals voting against the unemployed, and the
Ayrshire miner leading the Tory rank and file into the
revolutionary lobby was not calculated to enhance the
79
J. KEIR HARDIE
credit of either of these official parties. The Liberals
never forgave him for having compelled them to make
exposure of their own inherent reactionism.
The approval or disapproval of either of the official
parties did not affect Hardie in the slightest degree, and
he continued to seize every opportunity which the Rules
of the House allowed to give publicity to the grievances
of all classes of workers. A mere list of the questions
which he asked during his first Parliamentary session
almost forms an index to the social conditions of the
country at that time. On the same day on which he
moved his unemployment amendment, we find him
asking the Postmaster-General to state why certain Post
Office officials had been refused leave to attend a meeting
of the Fawcett Association. On March ;th, he was
inquiring as to the dismissal, without reason assigned,
of certain prison warders. On the Qth, he was back again
at the unemployment question, demanding from the
Local Government Board information as to the number
of unemployed in the various industries, and what steps
local authorities were taking to deal with the matter.
On the loth, he wanted to know why men on strike had
been prosecuted for playing musical instruments and
collecting money, while organ-grinders and others were
not interfered with for doing the same thing. On the
1 3th, he inquired whether it was intended to submit a
measure that Session to enable local authorities to deal
effectively with the severe distress prevailing all over the
country, and followed this up with another question
indicating how this could be done. This question is still
so relevant to present-day problems that it may be given
in full : "I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer
whether he contemplates, in connection with the Budget
proposals for next year, such a rearrangement of the
system of taxation as is known as a graduated Income
80
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Tax, by means of which the contribution to the revenue,
local and imperial, would bear a relative proportion to
income; also whether he will make such provision in the
Budget estimates for next year as would enable the Local
Government Board to make grants to any Board of
Guardians, Town and County Councils, or committees
of responsible citizens willing to acquire land or other
property and to undertake the responsibility of organising
the unemployed in home colonies and affording them
the opportunity of providing the accessories of life for
themselves and those dependent on them." The same day
he was inquisitive as to the pay of House of Commons'
policemen. On April I3th, he raised the question of the
inadequacy of the staff of Factory Inspectors, and wanted
to know whether it was proposed to appoint sub-
inspectors from the ranks of duly qualified men and
women who had themselves worked in the factories and
workshops.
On this day also, he put the first of a series of questions
which continued daily, like the chapters in a serial story,
for the following five weeks, and gave conspicuous illus-
tration of the alliance of the Government with the employ-
ing classes against the workers. What is known
in the history of industrial revolt as the Hull Dockt-
Strike had broken out, and the Government had, with
great alacrity, sent soldiers and gunboats to the scene
of the dispute. Day after day Hardie attacked the
Government in the only way available, with questions,
some of which were ruled out of order, but many of
which had to be answered, either evasively or with a
direct negative, but, either way, revealing the Govern-
ment bias. "Had the shipowners refused all efforts at
a compromise or towards conciliation?" "In these cir-
cumstances, would the Government order the withdrawal
of the military forces ?" "By whose authority were the
81
J. KEIR HARDIE
military and naval forces of the State sent to Hull to aid
the shipowners in breaking up a Trade Union registered
under an Act of Parliament?" The answers not being
satisfactory, he moved the adjournment of the House in
order to get the whole question of military interference
discussed, but less than forty Members rose, and, says
"Hansard," "business proceeded." Nothing daunted,
he returned to the attack, and asked the Secretary of
State for War whether he was aware that soldiers were
being used at Hull in loading and unloading ships. He
asked Asquith whether a lady journalist who had taken
part in a meeting of locked-out dockers had been refused
access to the docks by police? He asked particulars
regarding the number of magistrates at Hull ; how many
w,ere shipowners or dock directors, and how many were
working men, and elicited the following illuminative
reply :
''Thirty-nine magistrates, of whom there are four
shipowners, nineteen shareholders in ships. Dock
directors (no information). No working men."
He followed this up with the question : "Was a Bench
composed exclusively of shipowners and dock directors
capable of giving an unbiassed opinion on the question
of the means desirable to be taken for the protection of
their own property ? Was it true that additional forces
had been requisitioned, and were they to be sent?" The
answer was : "Yes." "Was the chief obstacle to a settle-
ment of the dispute a Member of this House and a sup-
porter of the Government (the reference being to Wilson,
of the Shipping Federation)?" but this was ruled out of
order by the Speaker as being a matter " not under the
cognisance and control of the Government."
Day after day, and week after week, he persisted with
his damaging catechism. Burns and Havelock Wilson
joined him from time to time, until at last a day was
82
HOUSE OF COMMONS
granted to the latter to move a resolution on the question,
he, as secretary of the Trade Union most deeply
involved, being recognised as specially representative of
the men on strike. A big debate ensued in which Front
Bench men took part, and during which Hardie delivered
an impassioned speech of considerable length. Burns,
Cremer and Hardie all urged Havelock Wilson to divide
the House on the question, but that gentleman, for
reasons which he doubtless thought satisfactory, with-
drew the resolution. Finally, the strike ended, like
many others before and since, as a drawn battle in which
the workers were the chief sufferers. Never before had
any Labour dispute occupied so much of the time of the
House of Commons a fact due to the presence there
of one man whose sense of duty to his class was too
strong to be overborne by regard for Parliamentary
etiquette or party exigencies. He was pursuing, in the
interests of labour, the same tactics which the Parnellites
had, up to a point, pursued so effectively in the interests
of Nationalism, and, had it been possible to have
gathered round him at that time a group of a dozen men
prepared resolutely to adhere to that policy, the sub-
sequent history of Labour in Parliament would have been
much different from what it has been. The dozen
men were there, but they were bound by party ties,
and lacked both the courage and the vision of Hardie.
As it was, he had redeemed his promise to form an
Independent Labour Party in the House. He had
formed a Party of one. And before that Parliament
came to an end, both Liberals and Tories had to bear
witness to its vitality and effectiveness.
Meantime the I.L.P. outside was growing, thanks not
a little to the advertisement it was getting from West-
minster. The first Annual Conference at Manchester,
in January, 1894, found it with two hundred and eighty
83
J. KEIR HARDIE
affiliated branches. At the Conference, Hardie was
elected Chairman; Tom Mann, then an enthusiastic
recruit, undertook the secretaryship. Ben Tillett with
a growing reputation as an agitator, and strange though
it may seem, something of a Puritan in social habits-
joined the National Council. Reports from the districts
showed that the Party would be well represented in the
Municipal elections during the next November, and
would thus have an opportunity of testing in some
degree its electoral support throughout the country.
The I.L.P. was an established factor in the political
life of the nation.
84
CHAPTER FIVE
STANDING ALONE' THE MEMBER FOR THE UNEMPLOYED
HARDIE was as indefatigable outside of Parlia-
ment as inside, addressing propaganda meetings
all over the country, writing encouraging letters
to branch secretaries, and editing the "Labour
Leader," which on March 3ist, 1894, became a
weekly, and for the financing and management of
which he made himself wholly responsible. The
wages bill of the paper, exclusive of printing, he
estimated at ,750 a year, which he hoped would be
covered by income from sales and advertisements, an
optimistic miscalculation which involved him in con-
siderable worry later on, when he found it necessary to
dispense with much of the paid service and rely to some
extent upon voluntary work by enthusiasts in the cause,
who, it should be said here, seldom failed him. The
first weekly number contained Robert Smillie's election
address as Labour Candidate for Mid-Lanark, where
a by-election in which Hardie took an active part was
again being fought. In the "Leader," Hardie had an
article on the election, a leading article on Lord Rose-
bery as prospective Premier, and a page of intimate
chat with his readers under the heading of " Entre Nous"
afterwards changed to the plain English of " Between
Ourselves," and this quantity of journalistic output he
continued for years, while shirking none of the other
work that came to him as an agitator and public man.
This number contained also an article by Cunninghame
H 85
J. KEIR HARDIE
Graham, the I.L.P. Monthly Report by Tom Mann,
"News of the Movement at Home and Abroad," besides
literary sketches and verses by various contributors. The
paper was edited from London, but printed in Glasgow
and distributed from there. There was a working staff
at both ends. Of the London experiences, Councillor
Ben Gardner of West Ham could doubtless give some
interesting reminiscences, while George D. Hardie,
Keir's younger brother, could do the same for Glasgow.
At the end of the first six months, David Lowe, a young
enthusiast from Dundee, with literary tastes and
Socialist beliefs, came in as sub-editor and to an
appreciable extent relieved Hardie of some of the
management worries, besides adding somewhat to the
literary flavour of the paper.
With the re-assembling of Parliament, Hardie re-
sumed his efforts to focus attention on the unemployment
question, but on bringing forward his resolution, found
himself up against a dead wall in the shape of a count-
out. By this time, also, his harassing of the Government
had raised the ire of West Ham Liberals who had not
bargained for quite so much militancy on the part of
their representative. From them he received numerous
letters of protest with threats of opposition at the next
election. To these he made a reply which defined most
explicitly at once his own personal attitude and the
Parliamentary policy of the I.L.P.
"The I.L.P.," he said, "starts from the assumption
, that the worker should be as free industrially and
economically as he is supposed to be politically, that the
land and the instruments of production should be owned
by the community and should be used in producing the
requisites to maintain a healthy and happy existence.
The men who are to achieve these reforms must be under
no obligation whatever to either the landlord or the
86
STANDING ALONE
capitalist, or to any party or organisation representing
these interests. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that
twenty members would be returned to Parliament who
were nominally Labour Members but who owed their
election to a compromise with the Liberals, what would
the effect be upon their action in the House of Com-
mons ? When questions affecting the interest of property
were at stake, or when they desired to take action to
compel social legislation of a drastic character, the
threat would be always hanging over them that unless
they were obedient to the party Whip and maintained
party discipline they would be opposed. In my own
case, this threat has been held out so often that it is
beginning to lose its effect. I have no desire to hold
the seat on sufferance and at the mercy of those who are
not in agreement with me, and am quite prepared to be
defeated when the election comes round. But I cannot
agree to compromise my independence of action in even
the slightest degree." This plain speaking was not
relished by his Liberal critics, and at one of his meetings
in the constituency there was some rowdyism.
In the first month of this particular session, he had
the satisfaction of speaking in support of the Miners'
Eight Hours' Day Bill, which he himself had helped to
draft years before, and of seeing the Second Reading
carried by a majority of 81. This result did not, of
course, ensure its immediately becoming law, for the
obstructive resources of capitalism in Parliament and
the opposition of two sections of the miners were
strong enough to prevent that for many years to come.
At this time 1 we also find him addressing meetings
in South Wales, as a result of which the I.L.P. got a
footing in the Principality which it has held ever since.
He had probably no premonition of how close would
yet be his own connection with Wales and the Welsh
87
J. KEIR HARDIE
people. But he had made a good beginning towards
winning their gratitude, for it was doubtless as the
natural sequel to his Welsh visit that in June he blocked
the Cardiff Dock Bill and forced thereby the withdrawal
of a clause which imposed a tariff of twopence on each
passenger landed at Cardiff and a charge for luggage.
And now, certain events happened in the world which
produced for Hardie a more trying parliamentary ordeal
than he had yet faced, and tested his moral courage to
the full. Let us look at these events in the sequence in
which they presented themselves to Hardie, and we shall
be the better able to understand the feelings and motives
which impelled him to act as he did.
On June 23rd a terrible explosion occurred at the
Albion Colliery, Cilfynydd, South Wales, by which two
hundred and sixty men and boys lost their lives. On
the same day a child was born to the Duchess of York.
On the following day, June 24th, M. Carnot, the Presi-
dent of the French Republic, was assassinated. On
June 26th, 70,000 Scottish miners came out on strike
against a reduction of wages.
Now turn to the House of Commons. On June 25th,
Sir William Harcourt moved a vote of condolence with
the French people. On June 28th, the same Cabinet
Minister moved an address of congratulation to the
Queen on the birth of the aforesaid royal infant. Never
a word of sympathy for the relatives of the miners who
had been killed : never a word of reference to the serious
state of affairs in the Scottish coalfield. Only one man
protested. That man was Keir Hardie.
The House of Commons' situation developed in
the following manner. When Harcourt gave notice
of his intention to move the vote of condolence with
the French people, Hardie inquired whether a vote of
sympathy would also be moved to the relatives of the
88
STANDING ALONE
two hundred and sixty victims of the Welsh colliery
disaster. " Oh, no/' said Sir William, " I can dispose
of that now by saying that the House does sympathise
with these poor people." Hardie put down a notice of
an addition to the motion, in which the Queen was to be
also asked to express sympathy with the Welsh miners'
friends, and the House to be asked to express its detesta-
tion of the system which made the periodic sacrifices
of miners' lives inevitable. His amendment was ruled
out of order, but when the congratulatory motion came
on he exercised his right to speak against it, as, he said,
" in the interests of the dignity of the House, and in
protest against the Leader of the House of Commons
declining to take official cognisance of the terrible col-
liery accident in South Wales." He stood alone,
deserted by every other Member, including Labour's
representatives, and faced a scene of well-nigh un-
exampled intolerance. A writer in the "West Ham
Herald," describing it, r wrote : "I've been in a wild beast
show at feeding time. I've been at a football match
when a referee gave a wrong decision. I've been at
rowdy meetings of the Shoreditch vestry and the West
Ham Corporation, but in all my natural life I have never
witnessed a scene like this. They howled and yelled
and screamed, but he stood his ground." Outside,
sections of the press acted i ! n much the same way as
the House of Commons' hooligans, and tried to represent
his action as a vulgar attack on Royalty. It was,
primarily, not an attack on Royalty. He was certainly
a Republican, but like most Socialists he regarded the
Monarchy as simply an appanage of the political and
social system, which would disappear as x a matter of
course when the system disappeared, and had it not
been that the juxtaposition of events threw up in such
glaring contrast the sycophancy of society where Royalty
j
J. KEIR HARDIE
was concerned, and its heartlessness where the common
people, were concerned, he would probably have allowed
the vote of congratulation to go through without inter-
vention from him. But he was in fact deeply stirred in
a way which these people could not understand. He
had brought with him into Parliament a humanism which
was greater than ceremony and deeper than formality.
He was a miner, and to him the unnecessary death of
one miner was of more concern than the birth of any
number of royal princes. He regarded these two hun-
dred and sixty deaths as two hundred and sixty murders.
He knew that this colliery had long before been reported
on as specially dangerous, and that no preventive
measures had been taken. He understood, only too
well, the grief and desolation of the bereaved women
and children. He had been through it all in his early
Lanarkshire days, and he was righteously and passion-
ately indignant. The jeers and hootings from Members
of Parliament and abuse from the press did not matter
to him at all. He took his stand because it was the only
thing he could do, and the receipt of nearly a thousand
letters of approval from people in all social grades con-
vinced him that besides satisfying his own impulses, he
had voiced a deep sentiment in the country.
Hardie was now nearly thirty-eight years of age, and
a recognised outstanding figure in British political life.
An unusual man, amenable neither to flatteries nor to
threatenings one who could not be ignored. An
impression of him, contributed to the "Weekly Times
and Echo" by John K. Kenworthy in this same month
of June, 1894, is worth reproducing.
"Above all things a spiritual, and yet .a simply
practical man. Not tall, squarely built, hard-headed,
well bodied, and well set up, he is obviously a bona
fide working man. His head is of the 'high moral' type,
90
STANDING ALONE
with a finely developed forehead, denoting perception
and reason of the kind called common sense/ His brown
hair is worn long and curling somewhat like the 'glory'
round the head of a saint in a painted window, and he
goes unshaved. However, most readers will have seen
him for themselves on some platform or another, though
one needs to be near him to perceive the particularly
deep, straight and steady gaze of the clear hazel eyes,
which is notable. Altogether, one judges him, by
appearances only, to be a close-knit, kindly and resolute
man, all which his performance in life bears out."
A by-election at Attercliffe in July calls for mention
if for no other reason than that it signalises J. Ramsay
MacDonald's entrance into the Independent Labour
Party. The circumstances of the contest confirmed the
I.L.P. belief that the interests behind Liberalism would
not concede willingly a single inch to the claims f of
labour for representation. The local Trades Council
had nominated their President, Mr. Charles Hobson,
with the tacit understanding that he would be allowed a
clear field to fight the Tory. Hobson was not what was
called an extremist. He would probably have been
obedient in Parliament to the Liberal Whip, but the
Liberals were taking no risks, and Mr. Batty Langley,
a local employer and ex-mayor, who had, as a matter
of fact, promised to support Hobson, was nominated as
Liberal candidate. After some shilly-shallying Hobson
withdrew, and the I.L.P., with little time for organisa-
tion, determined to fight with Mr. Frank Smith as their
candidate. He was defeated, of course, but secured
1,249 votes as against 7,984 for the two reactionary
candidates, a good enough foundation for the victory
which was to come later. The immediate result achieved
was the clear exposure of Liberalism's hostility to
labour.
91
J. KEIR HARDIE
The following letter from MacDonald is of historical
interest to the members of the I.L.P., and is to some
extent illustrative of the mental attitude of both the
sender and the recipient :
"20 Duncan Buildings,
"Baldwin Gardens, E.G.
"My dear Hardie, I am now making personal
application for membership of the I.L.P. I have stuck
to the Liberals up to now, hoping that they might do
something to justify the trust that we had put in them.
Attercliffe came as a rude awakening, and I felt during
that contest that it was quite impossible for me to main-
tain my position as a Liberal any longer. Calmer con-
sideration has but strengthened that conviction, and if
you now care to accept me amongst you I shall do what I
can to support the I.L.P.
"Between you and me there never was any dispute as
to objects. What I could not quite accept was your
methods. I have changed my opinion. Liberalism, and
more particularly local Liberal Associations, have
definitely declared against Labour, and so I must accept
the facts of the situation and candidly admit that the
prophecies of the I.L.P. relating to Liberalism have
been amply justified. The time for conciliation has
gone by and those of us who are earnest in our profes-
sions must definitely declare ourselves. I may say that
in the event of elections, I shall place part of my spare
time at the disposal of the Party, to do what work may
seem good to you.
' Yours very sincerely,
"J. R. MACDONALD."
In this manner came into the I.L.P. one whom Hardie
afterwards characterised as its "greatest intellectual
92
STANDING ALONE
asset," and whose influence on national and international
politics has been very great and still continues.
Meanwhile, the industrial phase of the Labour con-
flict absorbed Hardie's attention even more than the
political. The great strike of Scottish miners continued
for sixteen weeks, entailing much suffering throughout
the mining community and ending in virtual defeat for
the men. Still, though this was foreseen almost from
the beginning, it was necessary that the stand should be
made for the safeguarding of the sense of unity which
had now evolved in Scotland. The strike was in some
measure a consummation of Hardie's early efforts on
behalf of a national organisation. It was not a sectional
strike, but national, embracing the whole of the Scottish
mining industry, and in that respect constituted a notable
step towards that all-British combination which to-day
enables the miners from Scotland to Cornwall to present
a united front for the advancement of their common
interests. The West of Scotland leadership was now
in the capable hands of Robert Smillie, but, naturally,
when at home during the Parliamentary recess, Hardie
gave all possible assistance and addressed many meet-
ings of the men in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, besides
giving what counsel and support he could through the
" Labour Leader."
When it was all over he drove home the Socialist
lesson in an article which, by reason of its date, October
2oth, 1894, is a complete answer to those who now regard
the claim for the nationalisation of the mines as a new
revolutionary demand. Revolutionary it may be, but
it is not new.
"Now, why," he asked, "were the masters, the
Government, the press and the pulpit all arrayed
against you ?
'There is but one answer. All these are controlled by
93
J. KEIR HARDIE
the rich and you are the poor. Take the miners. The
minerals are owned by the landlords, and they insist
on having a royalty of from eightpence to one shilling
per ton of coal brought to the surface. The pits are
owned by the mineowners, and they and the landlords
have the power to say that not one ton of coal shall
be dug except on the terms they are willing to grant.
Here are the people of Scotland over four million
of them, wanting coal to burn, and willing to pay for it.
Here are you, the miners of Scotland, seventy thousand
of you, willing to dig the coal in exchange for a living
wage. But between you and the public stand the land-
lords and the mineowners, who say : 'The coal is ours
and we won't allow the miners to work nor the public
to be supplied unless on our terms.' So long as the
landlords and the mineowners own the mines they
are within their rights when they act as they have been
doing, and the cure lies not in cursing the mine-
j / owners nor in striking, but in making the mines public
J property:'
It should be noted that it was only before or after
a strike, not while it was taking place, that Hardie asked
the men to listen to counsel of this kind. He knew that
in the fight for wages, a strike, or the! threat of a strike,
was the only available weapon, and in the use of it he
was with them every time. He knew that they must fight
for wages, but he wanted them to have something bigger
than wages to fight for, and a different weapon than
the strike.
In September the Trades Union Congress was held
at Norwich, and Hardie attended practically for the last
time as a delegate. He had some time previously relin-
quished all official positions in the Miners' Association
and was therefore disqualified by the new standing
order passed this year which declared that a delegate
94
STANDING ALONE
must be either workingf at his trade or be a paid official
of a Trade Union. And so passed from the Trades
Union Congress three men who had taken a prominent
part in its deliberations Keir Hardie, John Burns and
Henry Broadhurst. Hardie especially had left his
mark on the Congress. His connection with the Con-
gress had only existed over a period of eight years,
beginning in 1887, when the formation of the Ayrshire
Miners' Union gave him a standing as a delegate.
In that time the outlook of the Congress towards the
principle of Independent Labour Representation, and
also towards Socialism, had almost completely changed.
That Hardie's personality had much to do with that
change is beyond doubt.
As far back as 1869 the Congress had declared in
favour of Labour Representation and had reaffirmed
the principle on several subsequent occasions. But no
steps had ever been taken to give practical effect to the
logical electoral policy implied by such resolutions
unless the return of a few working men to Parliament
as adherents of the Liberal Party could be so regarded.
Most of the men who had been so returned were mem-
bers of the Congress. Mr^JBroadhurst, the Secretary
of the Parliamentary Committee, hacTmdeed accepted
office in the Government as Under-Secretary of the
Home Office, and he has himself stated in his auto-
biography that the Parliamentary Committee functioned
as the Radical wing of the Liberal Party. He had
voted in Parliament against the Miners' Eight Hours'
Day Bill, and in all election campaigns he was the
Liberal Party's chief platform asset wherever working-
class votes required to be influenced. Naturally, he
and his Liberal-Labour colleagues resented vigorously
the new policy of absolute political independence, of
which Hardie made himself the spokesman. Doubtless
95
J. KEIR HARDIE
they represented quite faithfully the general Trade
Union attitude on the question. To change that atti-
tude was the purpose of Hardie and the new men who
were pushing their way into the Labour movement.
At first Hardie's position was that of almost complete
isolation, as the votes of the Congress testify. At the
1888 Congress, his motion impeaching Broadhurst for
having "in the name of the Congress" voted against
the Miners' Eight Hours' Day Bill received only 15
votes against 80, while the following year at Dundee,
when he made a frontal attack and moved that Broad-
hurst "was not a fit and proper person to hold the office
of Secretary" and accused him of supporting employers
of labour and holding shares in sweating companies (a
charge which was not denied), he was defeated by
177 to ii.
The Congress and the Trade Union movement were
evidently overwhelmingly against him. A weaker man
would have accepted defeat of this kind as final. It
only made Hardie more stubborn and stimulated him
to greater effort. Hardie's Congress record is some-
thing of a paradox. He was being defeated all the time,
and all the time he was winning. Even in 1891, when
he got only eleven supporters to his proposal for a
Trade Union Parliamentary Fund for securing Parlia-
mentary representation that was a move forward, being
an attempt to give practical effect to the decision which
the Congress had just previously arrived at calling for
a "strong and vigorous Labour Party" in Parliament.
Hardie's amendment was as follows : "and would sug-
gest to the organised trades of this country so to alter
their rules as to admit of their subscribing to a Parlia-
mentary Fund to be placed at the disposal of the
Congress to secure Labour Representation based upon
the decision of this Congress." We have here the germ
96
STANDING ALONE
of present day Labour Party finance. Yet, in 1891, it
had only eleven supporters in the Trades Union Con-
gress. Similarly, when, in 1892, on the motion of
Ben Tillett, it was decided to recommend the formation
of a Parliamentary Fund, and also to give no support
to any candidates but those who stood for the "collective
ownership of the means of production, distribution and
exchange," Hardie was again to the fore with an amend-
ment which placed him once more in the minority. His
proposal was for the formation of an Independent
Parliamentary group, but it was defeated by 1 19 votes to
96. Hardie's minorities were always the heralds of
future victory.
At that same Congress he had gathered together the
elements out of which in the following year was evolved
the Independent Labour Party, and now, this year, with
the I.L.P. in being, and himself in Parliament as its
representative, he could take leave of the Trades Union
Congress assured that his eight years of struggle and
pioneering had not been in vain.
It was probably on the occasion of this visit to
Norwich that an incident occurred revealing to his Trade
Union friends another aspect of his nature than that
to which they were accustomed in the stress of industrial
and political strife. The incident is related by Mr. S.
G. Hobson. "Of my various pleasant memories of
Norwich," says Mr. Hobson, "perhaps the sweetest was
one evening in the Cathedral grounds under an old
Norman arch where we stood and watched the sun go
down and darkness creep silently upon us. The green-
sward smoothed by careful hands for centuries back
seemed to gradually recede from our view. By and by
the lights twinkled from many windows, and we knew
that worshippers were there to chant the evening service
and sing their vesper hymns. Suddenly the voice of
97
J. KEIR HARDIE
old Hardie rose through the stillness, giving vocal
expression to the Twenty-third Psalm, and we all
joined Christians and agnostics blending our voices,
not so much in any devotional spirit as out of deference
to the influence of the place."
This inherent spiritual emotionalism if it may be so
called was continually manifesting itself in various
ways all through life, whether, as in the early Ayrshire
days, in evangelising on the Ayrshire highways and by-
ways, or, as in later days, preaching in Methodist pulpits
or on Brotherhood platforms, or in association with the
votaries of spiritualism and theosophy. He was
imbued with an imaginative catholicity of spirit which
rendered him responsive to every expression of religious
feeling which seemed to him sincere. There is no need
to try to explain it. It was involuntary, a part of his
nature, and it never hindered, but rather intensified and
idealised, his work for Socialism. His spiritual
enthusiasm never led him out of touch with reality. In
a very literal sense, "the poor he had always with him."
He was one of them. And to him their cause was a
cause of the devotional spirit.
Just about this time he was penning his letter to the
Scottish miners which was afterwards circulated in
pamphlet form under the title of "Collier Laddies." We
find him also addressing propaganda meetings as far
north as Arbroath, and across the channel speaking in
Waterford and in the Rotunda at Dublin and reporting
upon the Labour movement in Ireland with an optimism
which can hardly have been based upon an accurate
estimate of the all-absorbent character of the Nationalist
movement in that country.
Towards the end of this year, the I.L.P. had an acces-
sion of a kind more valuable than it could then know.
Philip Snowden, a man quite unknown to public life,
STANDING ALONE
joined the I.L.P. He had been living quietly in a remote
village amongst the Yorkshire hills, recovering from a
very serious, illness, and in the period of convalescence
had given his mind to a study of social problems, which
ended in his becoming a convinced Socialist. The
I.L.P. was steadily becoming equipped with capable
leadership, and with men of experience in administrative/
work. Keir Hardie, Ramsay MacDonald, Philip Snow-
den, Bruce Glasier, Fred Jowett, to name no others,
constituted a group which for all-round ability on the
platform or in the council chamber could not be sur-
passed by any of the other political parties.
In the Liberal camp there were evident signs of alarm
at the activities of the new party. In July, following
close upon the Attercliffe election, Joseph Burgess had
polled a substantial vote in a by-election at Leicester,
and all over the country the I.L.P. was busy selecting
its candidates and choosing the constituencies in which
it would fight, many of these being places where the
Liberal hold was already somewhat precarious. Lord
Rosebery, now Prime Minister, found it expedient to
address a meeting in Hardie's constituency at which he
demonstrated to his own satisfaction that a united
democracy was only possible through the Liberal Party.
Hardie, characteristically, replied both by speech and
pen, thereby focussing more than ever, national atten-
tion on himself as a political personality, and an article
which he contributed to the January, 1895, "Nineteenth
Century" explaining and vindicating the I.L.P. policy
and tactics, attracted much attention.
Nor did his practical work in the House of Commons
go entirely without recognition. On January i9th,
for example, he was the guest of the Fawcett Associa-
tion, at that time the one body ventilating the grievances
of postal servants, and was presented with an illuminated
99
J. KEIR HARDIE
address, "for the valuable services you have rendered
us in the House of Commons on every occasion when
you have found it possible to effectually advocate our
cause/' The address concluded : "We thank you for
your resolute adherence to the cause of truth and justice,
and esteem you as a man whose promise may be relied
on." An extremely comforting assurance to a man who
was at that very time being more virulently assailed by
the party politicians than any other public man in the
country.
Hardie was now preparing for his third Parliamentary
session and was determined to go to Westminster this
time fortified by an outside agitation which would com-
pel the Government to act on behalf of the unemployed,
or to resign, a formidable objective for an apparently
solitary and friendless commoner. The distress
throughout the country, instead of lessening, was
becoming more acute and widespread. Well-intentioned
local distress committees and soup kitchens only
emphasised, without materially alleviating, the misery,
and although the contending politicians might make
platform play with Armenian atrocities and with their
rival plans for pacifying Ireland, it was not possible to
get hungry British electors to concentrate on either of
these questions as an election issue. The difficulty
was and is to get them to concentrate upon anything.
That, in fact, is the trouble with which the Labour
Party is still faced.
In the first week of January, he appealed through the
4 * Labour Leader " for a small fund with which to begin
a national unemployed agitation, and by the time Parlia-
ment met in February, with a comparatively trifling
expenditure of money, big demonstrations had been held
in many of the great industrial centres, Hardie himself
taking a leading part in most of them. Many of the
100
Copyright
J. KEIR BARDIE, 1893
THE UNEMPLOYED
Liberal Members, with a general election impending,
were compelled to make promises to their constituents
which it was necessary they should make at least some
pretence of redeeming. It was, therefore, with some
tremors that the Government faced the House of Com-
mons, notwithstanding Harcourt's jocular attempt to
make light of the Opposition forces. "There was no
'true blue' now. They had instead the faded yellow of
Birmingham, a little dash of green from Waterford, and
a little splotch of red from West Ham. ' ' Thus deliber-
ately or not reckoning the solitary Keir Hardie as of
equal importance with the great Unionist Party. "A
splotch of red" said one of the clever rhymers of the
"Labour Leader " :
"A splotch of red, Sir William V.,
Only a little splotch of red.
Your friends sit back and broadly smile
As you the weary hours beguile
With little jokes but time will be
When you'll not treat so jestingly
That tiny little splotch of red.
A hearty, healthy little splotch
And growing- fast; full firmly bent
On turning out the fools that sport
With simple men and women's woes,
Your office is your only thought,
Your friends but on their seats intenlt.
Think you it can be ever so?
Sir William V., we tell you, no;
And all your mocking Parliament."
Hardie' s amendment to the address was in exactly
the same terms as the one he had moved two years before
on first taking his seat, but the circumstances were differ-
ent. The unemployed agitation had assumed big pro-
portions, the pressure from the constituencies was having
considerable effect upon many of the Government sup-
porters who would be compelled to vote with Hardie
I 101
J. KEIR HARDIE
unless their own leaders could provide them with a
plausible alternative; and there was the Tory opposition,
willing to use the unemployed question, or any other
question, as a means of bringing about a Government
defeat.
Mr. T. P. O'Connor, himself an experienced wire
puller, described in the " Weekly Sun" the manceuver-
ings which took place. "Some shrewd friends of the
Government knew what was in store for them if they
were to receive the motion of Mr. Keir Hardie with a
blank negative. The Government accordingly con-
sidered the situation, with the result that they went care-
fully through the suggestions that were made to them for
meeting with this terrible difficulty which comes periodic-
ally athwart the opulence and comfort of this mighty
nation and this vast city. The information was conveyed
to the friends of the Government that they saw their way
to propose a committee which would get a very practical
bit of work to do, and which would be obliged to go into
the question of the unemployed promptly as well as
seriously. Friends of the Government, having con-
sidered the terms of what it was proposed to do, were
able to announce in turn to the Government that in their
opinion this was as much as could be expected, and so all
danger of defections from the Liberal ranks disappeared.
Whatever happened on other amendments, Ministers
were safe on the amendment of Mr. Keir Hardie"
safe, but considerably shaken. Hardie had proved
himself a good parliamentary strategist; but he was
more than a strategist. He was, in a good cause, perhaps
the most stubborn man alive. He persisted with his
motion notwithstanding the promised concession, in the
value of which he had no faith at all. The scene which
ensued was thus described by a Press correspondent :
"As soon as it was known he was up, Members poured
IO2
THE UNEMPLOYED
in from every part, until every bench had its full quota
of Members, whilst a crowd stood below the bar and
another crowd behind the Speaker's chair. Both front
benches were crowded with Ministers and ex-Ministers
and the attention of the House was kept unbroken from
start to finish.
4 'The speech was not of the fighting order; the con-
cession just offered by the Government of a special com-
mittee having made that impossible, but the interest
never flagged for a moment and the chorus of cheers
from all parts at the close showed that a responsive chord
had been struck. Sir Charles Dilke followed and con-
gratulated Mr. Hardie on having gained the point which
for two and a half years he had been constantly fighting
for. He quoted Mr. Gladstone's reply to a question
put by the Member for West Ham in 1893, in which the
Prime Minister refused to agree to the appointment of
a committee because it was not the business of the
Government to deal with such questions."
Another contemporary impression, contributed to a
Northern paper, preserves for us with remarkable vivid-
ness the nature of the ordeal through which Hardie had
to pass when opposing the Government motion :
' 'When the Member for West Ham moved his second
amendment, Sir William Harcourt appealed to him to
withdraw it, an appeal which was backed by Sir John
Gorst, Mr. J. W. Benn, and Sir Albert Rollit, whilst
a number of Members tried their influence privately.
'If the Government can find the committee and make
an interim report, I will withdraw my amendment 5 ; and
the knit brow and the firm mouth showed that the words
meant what they said. It was a strange and significant
scene as the representatives of rank and titles tried to
bend the shaggy pitman to their will. In the end he
conquered, and the cheers with which Sir William Har-
IP3
J. KEIR HARDIE
court's capitulation was received were really a tribute
to Keir Hardie's firmness. It was a little incident, but
of great significance. 55
The * 'splotch of red" had made an indelible mark.
He got the assurance that the committee would get to
work immediately and bring in an interim report with all
possible speed. He, for his own part^llaying little faith
in a committee appointed reluctantly to sfl^e the Govern-
ment from immediate downfall, refused to associate
himself with it.
And now, finally, to complete the picture, take this
other contemporary comment from the London "Echo."
"Possibly the new Parliament may see nothing of
Keir Hardie, but the chronologist will at least do him
the justice of recording how he threw the Government
of the day into a blue funk, forced their hand, and then
haughtily left the Chamber, disdaining with almost a
refinement of cynicism to support their tardy concession,
and at the same time deftly eluding the grasp of the
clever intriguers who hoped to jockey into a follower the
free lance whom their caste pride would not permit to
lead them. Verily, the game of party politics is a
truculent business, and the fact has never been more
poignantly illustrated than in the incidents of a week in
which, shocking as it is, the almost houseless poor have
been the sport of the strategists in 'high places.'
In this fashion did Keir Hardie earn the title of ' 'Mem-
ber for the Unemployed."
104
CHAPTER SIX
A GENERAL ^CTION AMERICA INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
THE Liberal Government, however, though saved
for the time being, was, through sheer incapacity
to retain the confidence of any substantial section
of public opinion, drifting to its doom, and when, at
Easter, 1895, the Annual Conference of the I.L.P. met
in Newcastle, its deliberations were influenced to some
extent by the knowledge that a General Election was
near at hand and that the Party might in the course of
a few weeks have to make its first trial of strength at
the ballot box.
The chief subject of discussion at the Conference was,
therefore, on questions of election tactics and policy, but
the decisions arrived at involved something more than
a question of merely tentative electioneering expediency.
They determined the future character and method of the
I.L.P. as a political party working for Socialism.
First of all there was the proposal to change the name
to that of "National Socialist Party," a proposal which,
if it had been adopted when proposed by George Carson
at the first Conference, would doubtless have remained
permanently. Whether it would have excluded any un-
desirable moderate elements from the Party can now only
be conjectured, but after two years, in which, under the
name of I.L.P., the Party had established itself and had
become familiar to the British public, without in any
way compromising its Socialist aim, it was felt by the
great majority that a change was unnecessary. The
J. KEIR HARDIE
Newcastle Conference therefore confirmed the title under
which, through good report and evil, British Socialism
has sought to utilise the political power of British
democracy. Hardie was not strongly partial either way,
and would have continued to serve under any Party
name which embodied the Socialist objective.
Not so, however, with regard to the other and more
vital proposal to introduce into the Constitution a rigid
pledge binding all I.L.P. members "to support and vote
only for I.L.P. and S.D.F. candidates at any election."
This was what was known as the "Fourth Clause," and
round it was waged in the press, on the platform and
in branch meetings, many a wordy conflict. It was
mainly because of the rejection of this clause that Robert
Blatchford left the I.L.P. Under this proposal the
large majority of I.L.P. adherents would have exer-
cised no vote at all at the oncoming General Election.
Some twenty-one candidates had already been chosen,
and others were in course of selection, but in upwards
of six hundred constituencies, even where their votes
might have had a decisive effect as between Liberal and
Tory, Socialists under this pledge would be condemned
to inaction. Contingent upon this proposal was the other
discussion as to whether, in constituencies where there
was no Socialist candidate, the vote should be given
always against the sitting Member, either Liberal or
Tory, the object being to demonstrate the power of the
I.L.P. This, of course, was an impossible policy if the
abstinence pledge was enforced. Hardie was opposed to
the rigidity which such a pledge implied for other
reasons. He had an intimate knowledge of the Trade
Union and Co-operative movements, and he knew well
that even I.L.P. sympathisers within these movements
could not be expected, where possible gain to Trade
Unionism or Co-operation was obtainable, to exercise
1 06
GENERAL ELECTION
such a self-denying political ordinance. To issue a man-
date which would not be obeyed would be interpreted as
evidence of weakness rather than of strength, and in his
presidential address, without any direct reference to the
Conference agenda, he appealed to the members to do
nothing to alienate the Trade Union, Co-operative and
Temperance movements. On the other hand, in support
of the clause it was urged by Leonard Hall and others,
that "what was wanted was a fixed, definite and per-
manent policy having regard, not to the present only,
but to the ultimate triumph for which they were working
in the future." This, of course, was the very object
which it was maintained could best be secured by the
less rigid proposal put forward by the National Council.
This asked from members the following declaration :
"I hereby declare myself a Socialist, pledge myself to
sever my connection with any other political party, and
to vote in the case of local elections as my branch of the
I.L.P. may determine, and, in the case of the Parlia-
mentary elections, as the Conference specially convened
for that purpose may decide." This was adopted and is
still the election policy of the I.L.P. Yet, curiously
enough, at the very first election the Special Party Con-
ference recommended the "Fourth Clause" line of
action and inaction.
The opportunity came in July. The Liberal Govern-
ment was defeated on the question of an insufficient
supply of explosive material for the Army evidently
a more serious default than an insufficiency of food
or work for the unemployed. The I.L.P. went into the
contest with a manifesto to the electors of Great Britain
and Ireland, the following extract from which shows the
electoral policy advised, but certainly not adopted, by
Socialist voters :
"The I.L.P. has for its object not merely the return
107
J. KEIR HARDIE
of working men to Parliament, but the entire reorgan-
isation of our system of wealth production on the basis
of an industrial Commonwealth. To accomplish this we
aim at breaking down the system of party government
which is responsible for dividing the great mass of the
people into separate camps, so evenly balanced that the
one neutralises the other, and thus reduces the franchise
to a mockery. So long as we continue to vote for
Liberals and Conservatives, the mockery of government,
of which we have seen so much, will continue.
"In twenty-nine constituencies I.L.P. candidates will
go to the poll, and the Party has decided at a special
conference of delegates from all parts of the country that
in all other constituencies the members shall ABSTAIN
FROM VOTING. For this election we consider this
the most effective method of achieving our object."
The result showed that the workers in most constitu-
encies where there were no Labour candidates did not
act upon this advice. They exercised the franchise and
voted against the Liberal Party, which, through a long
period of deep distress, had proved itself callous to the
claims of the unemployed. The Liberal Party was
badly routed. Some of its leading men, such as Mr.
John Morley and Sir William Vernon Harcourt, were
cast out, chiefly through the intervention of I.L.P. can-
didates; but in the main the verdict against Liberalism
was an expression of discontent with the Party rather than
of revolt against the system which the Party represented.
The Socialist propaganda had not vet penetrated deeply
enough, and especially, it had not been able to make the
Irish population in the constituencies subordinate their
Nationalist aspirations to their economic needs. It was
the Irish vote in this election which saved the Liberal
Party from utter ruin. And it was the Irish vote that
defeated Keir Hardie in West Ham and returned a Tory
1 08
GENERAL ELECTION
who had not the faintest sympathy with Home Rule, the
official Liberals, by countenancing such tactics, making
it clear that to them Keir Hardie was a more dangerous
adversary than any Tory. A very high compliment
indeed, and one that confirmed the I.L.P. contention
that there was no fundamental difference between
Liberalism and Conservatism.
The Socialists, though not one of their candidates
was returned and they lost their single Parliamentary
seat, showed not the slightest sign of dejection. They
were, indeed, jubilant. They reckoned up their votes and
found that they had polled an average of 1,592 votes per
candidate. They believed that a proportionate support
was waiting for them in most of the other constituencies
where they had been unable to put up candidates, and
they knew that with these votes they could win Local
Government seats in every part of the country.
Hardie wrote a farewell letter to the West Ham
electors, concluding in his usual optimistic vein : "The
moral and intellectual power of the community are on
our side and those in the end will triumph. I thank my
friends for the zeal with which they worked. The
triumph of our movement has not been delayed; we have
but purified it by purging it of unworthy elements. Let
the friends of our cause be of good cheer." So ended
Keir Hardie's third year's experiment as a lone fighter
in Parliament.
There is another aspect of this Parliamentary struggle
which should not be lost sight of in forming our estimate
of the character of this man. There was no wages' fund
from which he could draw an income. He was not the
paid servant of any trade union. Payment of Members
was still far in the future. During these three years, as
always, he had to earn his own living and maintain his
home in Cumnock. That he, the self-taught man from
109
J. KEIR HARDIE
the pits, untutored and untrained except in the rough
school of perpetual industrial strife, should have been
able to do this without the slightest sacrifice of principle,
is proof of great capacity and indomitable spirit. It
was the recognition of this that won for him the respect
of the better section of his opponents, and the trust and
affection of his colleagues and comrades in the move-
ment of which he was now the acknowledged leader.
Doubtless, during these years there were times when
it was well-nigh impossible to make ends meet, either in
London or in Cumnock, but of these things neither he
nor the good wife at home ever made mention.
Release from Parliament brought the opportunity to
realise a long-cherished desire. In the autumn of the
previous year he had made plans to visit America, and
had actually booked his passage, but at the last moment
certain unexplained obstacles intervened probably
financial and the project had to be abandoned.
Now there came an invitation from the American
Labour Day Committee to attend the Chicago Labour
Congress on September 2nd. The Chicago Labour
Congress was described by H. D. Lloyd (who also wrote
pressing Hardie to accept) as "composed of the best
elements of the Trade Union movement of Chicago,"
and it was urged that Hardie's visit would be "a matter
of national and international importance." He had
some hesitation in accepting the invitation, due to the
fact that Mrs. Hardie had been for some time in rather
poor health. She had, however, recovered considerably,
and, said Hardie, "she, with that devotion to the cause
which had enabled her to endure so much uncomplain-
ingly in the past, sank herself once more." He regarded
the American expedition as part of a much bigger pro-
ject. "Next year," he said, "I hope to visit Australia
or New Zealand and thus get the entire advanced
no
AMERICA
Labour movement into active speaking contact," a plan
which he ultimately fulfilled, though not in, the chrono-
logical order here indicated. In addition to this high
seriousness of purpose, Hardie undoubtedly expected
much personal enjoyment from the Transatlantic
excursion. He made his preparations with almost
boyish zest and enthusiasm, and revelled humorously
in the kindly arrangements for his comfort made by
numerous friends and comrades. He relates with great
gusto how one friend sent him a cigarette case, how
another brought him a cigar case, and yet another a box
of cigars wherewith to keep it filled ; a fourth brought a
packet of "Old Gold" and a pipe, and a fifth, "the
widow's mite, in the shape of a matchbox made by him-
self" a monotonous succession of gifts, due, as
Hardie whimsically said, to the fact that he had "only
one vice," characterised by one of his friends as an ability
"to smoke anything from a cuttypipe to a factory chim-
ney." "At least, I shall have plenty of tobacco for the
next seven days."
He celebrated his thirty-seventh birthday quietly at
Cumnock, and next morning started off on his travels.
At Liverpool, the port of departure, he was joined
by Mr. Frank Smith, who was to be his companion and
confidant in this and many other enterprises. Mr. Smith
had come into the Socialist movement by way of the
Salvation Army, of the social work of which he had been
one of the principal organisers, until the futility of
patching up an ever-extending evil had driven him to
look for a fundamental cure, and naturally brought him
to Socialism. Right up to the end Hardie and he were
very close friends.
The Merseyside Socialists organised a great send-off
demonstration, and, not content with marching in pro-
cession to the quayside, chartered a tug on board of
ill
J. KEIR HARDIE
which a crowd of enthusiasts attended the Cunard liner
right out of the harbour bar, cheering and singing in a
way, as Hardie said, "calculated to make every passen-
ger on the 'Campania' discuss Socialism."
The immediate result was an invitation to address
the passengers on the subject of "Competition," this
title having been suggested by the denunciatory ban-
ners displayed from the tug. This was the kind of
request which Hardie never refused. Probably no man
has ever spoken for Socialism in so great a variety of
circumstances. The hillside or the street corner, the
church pulpit or the university debating hall, made no
difference to him ; he 'delivered his message with as
much emphasis and impressiveness to students and pro-
fessors and aristocrats and millionaires as to colliers
and dock labourers and common working folk.
On this occasion he drew his illustrations of the social
and industrial world from the classes into which the
passengers were divided the privileged class, the
plutocrats, and the common people and showed "how
the two former were sitting on the backs and keeping
their hands in the pockets of the latter, robbing them of
the land, robbing them of the fruits of their labour, and
all in the name of the law and by the means of com-
petition, and so keeping the workers in subjection."
Needless to say, the two I.L.P. men and the steerage
folk enjoyed themselves, and probably some of the
"plutocrats" also.
One personal note of the voyage may be preserved
as characteristic. The other passengers were in the
habit of putting back their watches an hour each day,
so as to be right with New York time on arrival. Not
so Hardie. "With that sympathy with Toryism which
I am known to possess, I declined to alter my time.
By keeping to the Cumnock time I could always tell
112
AMERICA
exactly what was being done at home when the
children went to school, when they returned, when
they went to bed, and the rest of it and found
more to interest me therein than in trying to keep
pace with Daddy Time."
The two companions contributed to the "Labour
Leader" at the time a series of intensely interesting
descriptive articles, which even now might bear repro-
duction in book form, alike as an extra biographical
memento, and as a means of comparing American labour
conditions of that time with the present. For Hardie
it was a memorable pilgrimage.
His was the kind of mind that never becomes blase
or impervious to new sensations. Every day, almost
every hour, of his journeying brought something of the
thrill of a new adventure. At New York he was most
cordially welcomed and feted by all sections of the
Socialist and Labour movement, who sank their differ-
ences in order to do honour to the fearless agitator from
across the "fish pond." He visited Daniel de Leon,
at that time editor of "The People," whom he describes
as "a fair specimen of the energetic, clear, cool enthusi-
ast. Seen in the editor's den at 184 Market Street, he
recalls the pictures one has seen of the French Com-
munists manning the barricades, in his striped blouse,
white kerchief at the throat, slightly oval face, with full
beard growing grey, and the clear eye and olive-tinted
skin of the South. A man accustomed to give and receive
hard knocks, he has enemies as well as friends, but all
agree that for single-mindedness and purity of aim he
has few equals. "
In New York, and through his fifteen weeks' tour,
Hardie noted regretfully the keen, almost fierce antag-
onism between the various sections of the Labour and
Socialist movement, but was gratified to find their
J. KEIR HARDIE
antagonisms fade away, at least temporarily, in the com-
mon desire to show him respect and give him a "good
time." The travellers were nearly a week in New York
before starting West. They spent daylight hours in
the "Bowery," and night-time hours in China Town.
They contrasted the vaunted Yankee equality with the
rigidity of the "colour line." They were the guests of
the select Manhattan Club, whose members viewed with
disapproval alike the political opinions of their visitors
and their preference for ginger ale to burgundy. They
dined at Delmonico's where pipes were taboo and cigars
the only permissible smoke, and they mingled with the
early-morning line of hungry men waiting for a free
distribution of bread outside the Vienna Bakery. They
penetrated as far as they dared into the social under-
world, and, as their motives were higher than mere
curiosity, they doubtless succeeded better than most
sightseers.
The writer has thought it well, during the course of this
narrative, to present Hardie as he appeared to some of
his contemporaries. This "New York World" picture
of him may not come amiss :
' 'As a representative of the great class he is undoubt-
edly more interesting than anything he may say. He is
a strong man. His face is strong and his jaw is square;
his head is big and well shaped. His hair is fairly long
and curly. He is intensely earnest. He has no non-
sense about him and no cant. He uses words to express
what he thinks, not to sound well. He dresses simply,
perhaps too simply, for there is as much affectation in
simplicity as in show. His shoes are low-cut and heavy,
and his blue shirt and tie match and are sensible. His
nose is straight and long. He has a good eye which
looks squarely at and into you. His chest is big. He is
temperate. He has read more than the average ignor-
114
AMERICA
amus who will try to teach him about American institu-
tions. He knows what few men who try original thought
ever learn. He knows that he can never hope to learn
much or to do much. He realises that he is like a small
insect working at the foundations of a coral island. He
does not expect to raise society ninety feet into the air
in his lifetime. Those who argue with Mr. Hardie will
always find one difficulty about him. He knows pretty
well what he is talking about." Thus the American
pressman measured him up, if not quite accurately,
with some superficial shrewdness.
At Chicago his reception was on a bigger scale even
than at New York. This was accounted for partly by
the fact that his visit coincided with the great Labour
Day demonstrations at which he was regarded as the
chief speaker, and he was well reported in the press.
Here he diverged sixty miles north to Woodstock, where
Eugene V. Debs was in prison on a charge arising out
of the part he had played in the Pullman strike. Hardie
was hugely tickled when Debs himself came down the
prison steps with a "walk right in and make yourselves
at home." The great labour leader has been in prison
since then, and has been under much more rigid surveil-
lance. He is there, much to the disgrace of America,
whilst this is being written.
During his brief sojourn at Chicago and Milwaukee
he attended a nomination convention and gained some
insight into American electoral methods. When he
came away it was "with a feeling of regret that so many
earnest, wholehearted reformers were engaged in
fighting such side issues as the silver question when
by going straight for the Socialist ticket they would
settle that and many other questions."
The tour took the travellers almost as far west as
they could get. They went to Denver, Leadville, "two
"5
J. KEIR BARDIE
hundred feet up in the clouds/' Colorado Springs, Salt
Lake City, San Francisco, and the Montana mining
district, Altruria, Santa Rosa, Kansas City, St. Louis,
and many other places not in the way of the ordinary
tourist.
At San Francisco the travellers ran up against the
"Almighty Dollar" on a somewhat big scale. The
Mayor of the city, better known 'as the "Silver King"
from the fact that he had amassed millions of dollars
out of silver-mining and speculation, was an ardent
believer in bimetallism, which was at that time the chief
plank in Mr. Bryan's platform as candidate for the
Presidency. The Mayor had persuaded himself that if
it could be shown that England was falling into line
with the American bimetallist campaign it would greatly
help Mr. Bryan's candidature, and he put it to Hardie,
in the presence of Frank Smith and the Rev. Mr. Scott
of the Presbyterian Church, as a business proposition
that he should get the I.L.P. to make a declaration in
favour of bimetallism, or, failing that, that he should
himself make a speech in its favour as Chairman at the
I.L.P. Annual Conference in return for which service
Hardie would receive a cheque for 100,000 dollars
about 20,000. The Mayor and the minister were both
surprised when Hardie and Frank Smith laughed the
idea out of court, the Mayor especially being quite
unable to comprehend the point of view of a labour
leader who could turn down a business proposal of
this kind.
There were doubtless many others equally mystified
by such conduct. To them it almost seemed as if this
inexplicable Scotsman had a contempt for "siller." He
had refused the Liberal Party money. He had refused
the Carnegie money. He had refused the money from
the Edinburgh ladies, and now he had rejected almost
AMERICA
contemptuously a fairly substantial fortune in return for
a speech.
Forty-eight hours later the two travellers landed in
Butte City possessed of a financial equipment of exactly
one dollar, ten cents. about five and sixpence to find
that remittances expected from Chicago had not arrived.
The story of how a providential Scottish piper saved the
situation afforded Hardie many a reminiscent chuckle
in days to come. The local comrades, chiefly Knights
of Labour, had placed a buggy at their disposal to enable
them to see the sights, and, when returning from a visit
to an Indian encampment, their ears were regaled by
sounds which set the Scotsman's blood tingling. "Do
you hear that music ?" he said to the driver. "That ain't
no music," was the reply/' that's the Scotch pipes."
"Drive to where they are being played," said Hardie,
and the driver, whose appreciation of Scotch whisky was
greater than his knowledge of Scottish music, speedily
landed his fares at the door of a wooden drinking saloon
whose proprietor, a stalwart Scot of the Macdonald clan,
was marching in front of the bar playing reels and High-
land dirges, and who, with his drouthy customers, hailed
the Labour man from the Old Country with enthusiasm.
A meeting in the Opera House was arranged impromptu
for the same evening, an3, thanks to the rallying power
of Macdonald's pipes, a crowded audience heard the
Socialist message. Seventy-five dollars were handed to
Hardie as the surplus after paying all expenses. "And
that," said Keir, when telling the story, "was how
Providence came to the rescue at Butte City."
Hardie addressed meetings in most of the important
towns, and in the industrial districts. He conferred with
the trade union and Socialist leaders and with all kinds
of public officials, and in every possible way tried to gain
information concerning industrial and political condi-
J 117
J. KEIR HARDIE
tions. But he did not delude himself into the belief that
he had learned sufficient to justify him in speaking as an
authority on American Labour problems. As he said
in summing up : "The impressions one gets in hurrying
across a great continent are necessarily mere surface im-
pressions, and do not qualify one to dogmatise or even to
describe. I like to know, not only what appears to the
observation, but the causes which have produced the
things seen, and these are not always so easily obtained."
"Still," he continued, "I have the feeling that having
gone there to learn, the visit in this respect has not been
entirely in vain. Of one thing I am certain. The cause
of Socialism and the I.L.P. has been benefited, and some
fresh links have been forged in the chain which will one
day bind the workers of the world in international soli-
darity. There as here, we found that the common sense
of Socialism is a much more powerful argument than its
hard, dry, scientific, economic justification. Few people
are scientists, but all are human, and the secret of the
Success of the I.L.P. here at home has been the homely,
essentially human tone which has been the chief note of
its teaching."
That last sentence is exceedingly illuminative of
Hardie's own Socialist inspiration. He was not of the
stuff of which doctrinaires are made.
The winter of 1895 was a very distressful one, especi-
ally in the west of Scotland, where, in addition to the
unemployment consequent upon trade depression, there
was a lock-out of engineers which lasted for several
months, and of course affected some of the auxiliary occu-
pations. Socialists, as such, were not in a position to
intervene, and could only make use of the trouble as
propaganda against the capitalist system.
There was no Keir Hardie in Parliament to help to
focus political opinion on the industrial question, and the
118
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
Tory Government, with no effective criticism from the
Liberal Opposition, could afford to let matters drift.
During the first few weeks after his return from America,
Hardie's domestic affairs, concerning which he was
always very reticent, naturally absorbed much of his
attention, as also did the affairs of the "Labour Leader."
Previous to his departure for America he had found it
necessary to appeal to readers and sympathisers to re-
double their efforts for an increased circulation and
advertisement revenue. There had been a very
encouraging response, but the ship was still in troubled
waters financially. It is doubtful if it ever fully emerged
from this trouble during all the years whilst Hardie was
responsible for its guidance. Yet somehow he managed
to keep it going.
A statement which he made at this time helps to throw
light on another matter which has sometimes been a
source of conjecture to friends as well as enemies his
relationship to the movement financially. In response
to enquiries as to his terms for lectures he said : "I have
endeavoured, not with much success, to clear my out-of-
pocket expenses from these talking engagements. Train
fares and travel mean money. So does postage. So
does the loss of time involved in connection with the work
which, in the case of a man who earns his living by his
pen, as I do, comes to a serious item. The return jour-
ney between Scotland and London costs about 3 IDS.
in fares and necessary food. To some parts of the
Kingdom it costs more; to some less. I found two years
ago that a fixed uniform charge of 3 35. for all meetings
in the provinces enabled me to meet all expenses. This
charge covers everything, hotel bill, travelling and all
other outlays. When I am living in London or Glasgow
these places have all the meetings they want, and there is
no question of fee or expense." It is quite clear from
119
J. KEIR HARDIE
this statement that the I.L.P. offered no inducement to
adventurers in search of fame or fortune. It had neither
political preferment nor financial advantage to offer to its
adherents, nor any soft jobs. Yet it continued to attract
into its ranks many men and women of high attainments.
It must, at any rate, be quite clear that the founder of
the I.L.P. was not living luxuriously. As a matter of
fact, during his first three years in Parliament, twenty-
five shillings a week was the most he was able to remit to
Mrs. Hardie in Cumnock, and sometimes not even so
much as that.
On December 2ist, he presided at a dinner given to
"Labour Leader" contributors at the Albion Hotel,
Ludgate Circus, London, and paid tribute to the satisfac-
tory service rendered by his co-workers on the paper.
This meeting, however, is chiefly memorable because it
was the occasion of the last public utterance of Sergius
Stepniak, the great Russian Nihilist exile, whose book.
* ' Underground Russia," was the first revelation to the
British people of the working of those tremendous unseen
forces beneath the surface of Russian society whose
effects are now plainly visible to the whole world. Parts
of the speech may be quoted as illustrative alike of the
characters of Stepniak and Hardie and of the similarity
of Socialist conception by which both men were inspired.
"Socialism/ 5 said Stepniak, "is now the only force
able to inspire men with that boundless devotion, and
utter disregard for personal safety which we see constantly
exhibited by Socialists in every land. It is remarkable
that whenever you have before you a movement which is
really like the religious movement at the time of the
Reformation, it is Socialism which is behind it. It is so
in Russia, France, Germany, America everywhere."
Speaking of the great growth of the Socialist movement
in this country, he said : "Although I know that my com-
120
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
rade in the chair does not like signalling out personalities,
I feel it is only fair to say that Keir Hardie was the one
man in England who did more than most in that great
work. There are points in his programme with which I
do not entirely agree, but I cannot help admiring in his
individuality, the character, the straightforwardness, the
perfect simplicity and unconquerable energy which finds
renewed impulse in every obstacle. Keir Hardie has
shown what an Englishman can do. I can say that in the
name of thousands of my comrades in Russia, where
Keir Hardie's name is as well known as that of the great-
est of Englishmen." Two days later Stepniak was dead,
having been run down by a passing train while crossing
the railway line on his way to a meeting of his co-patriots
in another part of London. The following Saturday,
there gathered outside Waterloo Station representatives
of the world-wide revolutionary movement, to pay tribute
to his memory and to renew their vows of devotion to the
common cause. His fellow countrymen, Kropotkin and
Volkhovsky ; Bernstein, of the German Social Democrats ;
Malatesta, of Italy; Nazarbeck, of Armenia; William
Morris, Keir Hardie, Herbert Burrows, John Burns, of
the British Socialist movement, besides many representa-
tives of art and science and literature, and a sad concourse
of exiles, mourning the loss of their great brother.
Stepniak, like so many of the Russian revolutionary
leaders, was born in the ruling class, and had given all
his power and genius to the overthrow of that class. He
had organised secret propaganda and revolt, had found it
necessary to meet violence with violence, and it was
believed had helped to rid the world of more than one
of its worst tyrants. Yet the testimony of all his associ-
ates declared him to be one of the gentlest of men, a
man of a sweet and a lovable nature. When the I.L.P.
was formed he joined immediately, and between him and
121
J. KEIR HARDIE
Hardie there had been frequent intercourse. Hardie
was also at this time on terms of intimacy with Kropotkin
and had spent hours at his home drinking samovar-made
tea, and smoking many pipes of tobacco while the apostle
of Anarchism paced the floor of his paper-littered room
and gave illustration after illustration to prove that par-
liamentary institutions were "a quicksand in which
honesty, manhood, courage, and all else were lost."
"Were we all Kropotkins," said Hardie, "Anarchism
would be the only possible system, since government and
restraint would be unnecessary."
Naturally, communion with these and other strong
souls, purified as by fire through persecution and suffer-
ing, was not without influence on a mind that, up to the
very last, never ceased to expand. His perception of
the fact that though many people have the same pur-
pose, they must of necessity approach their problems
from different angles and from different circumstances,
made him averse to dogmatise as to methods and he was
tolerant of Socialists and reformers whose ways were not
as his ways. This trait in his character was very evident
at the International Congress this year when the place
of Anarchists in the Socialist movement became a very
vital question.
The Congress, which was held in the Queen's Hall,
London, began on Monday, July 27th, and continued for
six days. The organising committee responsible for call-
ing it had to be guided by the following resolution
passed by the Congress held at Zurich in 1892 : "All
trade unions shall be admitted to the Congress, also, all
those Socialist parties and organisations which recognise
the necessity for the organisation of the workers and for
political action.
"By political action is meant that the working-class
organisations seek, as far as possible, to use or con-
122
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
quer political rights and the machinery of legislation for
the furthering of the interests of the proletariat and the
conquest of political power."
Upon the interpretation and application of this "stand-
ing order," so un-English in its dress and form, there
was much and heated debate. A considerable number
of delegates, especially from Holland and France, had
come with credentials from societies that did not include
parliamentary action in their programmes. Some of these
were trade unions pure and simple which had sent well-
known Anarchists as their delegates. There were also
"Free Communists" all non-parliamentarians. Hardie
was in favour of their admission . "It might be alleged , ' '
he said, in defining; his position at the meeting of the
I.L.P. section, "that if they supported these people's
claims they were sympathising with Anarchists. For his
part, he was more afraid of doing an unfair thing towards
a body of Socialists with whom he did not see eye to
eye, than he was of being called an Anarchist." Tom
Mann took the same point of view, and both supported
their positions in the Congress. The I.L.P. delegates
were divided on the question, but the German section
and the British S.D.F., who largely dominated the Con-
gress proceedings, were united in refusing admission to
the non-parliamentarians. In the end, Anarchist dele-
gates were excluded, though many of the prominent
Anarchists found entrance as trade unionists. Funda-
mentally, the question at issue was the same question
which had divided Bakunin and Marx in the days of the
old International and which in these days still intervenes
to prevent the reconstitution of a united international
Socialist movement. Modern Socialism is simply the
concrete expression of ideas of government which at
that time had not passed the stage of being mere formulae.
Hardie did not think it well that the whole movement
123
J. KEIR HARDIE
should be bound rigidly along a certain fixed pre-
^ conceived line of development, and he believed that
political and industrial methods were not irreconcilable.
v This seems the right place to bring into view Hardie's
opinions on the general strike. He had endeavoured,
without success, to get the I.L.P. to put down a resolu-
tion in favour of a general strike for the achievement of
a universal eight-hours' day, and in the "Labour
Leader " he expressed regret that an opportunity had not
been provided for discussing the proposal at the Con-
gress. In this article he declared himself definitely in
favour of it, and adduced arguments which seem more
weighty to-day than they did then, perhaps chiefly
because the objective has changed from an eight-hours'
day to the much bigger one of making an end of war. It
y'must be remembered that Hardie had been cradled and
reared in the midst of industrial strife, and that though
he was now the foremost advocate in this country of
political action, and was continually advising the miners
that through the ballot box they could achieve their ends
more quickly than by industrial action, he had never
counselled them to let go the strike weapon. Through-
out his American tour he had been impressed by the
backwardness of labour political organisation in that
country and by the readiness of masses of the workers
to come out on strike, and he believed that, by a policy
of this kind, the political actionists and the industrial
actionists in Europe might find common ground. He
did not, however, believe in any mere spasmodic light-
ning strike policy. He recognised that for successful
international action long preparation was necessary. His
suggestion was that the International Congress Bureau
should take charge of the movement, that the date of the
general strike should be fixed four years in advance, and
that the intervening time should be employed in
124
FREE SPEECH
propaganda and organisation and in the co-ordinating of
the labour sections in every part of Europe, America,
and Australia. He believed further, that such a move- v-
ment would force the hands of the international diplomat-
ists, and compel them to agree to the establishment of
common labour conditions in all countries. He, in fact,
supported the general strike, believing that the more
effectively it was organised the less need would there be
for putting it into operation, while the preparations for it
would tend to unify the forces working for international
Socialism. It is not the business of the biographer to
discuss these theories and policies, but simply to present
as faithfully as may be the mental processes of the man
whose life is being portrayed.
During the greater part of this summer, the I.L.P.
was engaged in defending the right of free speech. Ever
since its formation, the I.L.P. had used the open-air
meeting to an extent never attempted previously.
Wherever a branch of the party existed, the out-door
Socialist meeting became a feature of the public life of
the district. Exceedingly capable lecturers addressed
these meetings. Assisted by local speakers who were
always ready to reinforce the efforts of the more
experienced platform orators, J. Bruce Glasier, Mrs.
Bruce .Glasier, Enid Stacy, Caroline Martyn, S. D.
Shallard, Joseph Burgess, Tom Mann, Leonard Hall,
Keir Hardie and a host of others, were continually on
the move from place to place. In many places large
audiences were attracted and Socialist leaflets and
pamphlets were widely circulated. Naturally, the more
conservative elements in the community did not look
upon these signs of active life with favour, and in various
localities they sought to invoke law and authority to
stop the flood of, what seemed to them, pernicious
doctrine. The usual result was to give the new move-
125
J. KEIR HARDIE
ment a bigger advertisement. The greatest of these
fights took place at Manchester. What was known as the
"Boggart Hole Clough case" filled the papers for some
time and excited every branch of the I.L.P. in the
country. It was, however, only typical of what took
place on a lesser scale in many other districts.
Boggart Hole Clough is a kind of glen situated in a
public park then recently acquired by the Manchester
City Council. The I.L.P. had been holding meetings
there, and, on the plea that they were causing an
obstruction, the Parks Committee decided to prohibit
the meetings. The I.L.P. paid no attention to the
prohibition, maintaining that there was no obstruction.
Their speakers, however, were summoned before the
stipendiary magistrate and fined. Two of them, Mr.
Leonard Hall and Mr. Fred Brocklehurst, went to
prison for a month rather than pay the fine. Week by
week the prosecution of speakers and literature sellers
continued. But the Party had determined to fight the
matter out, and fight it out it did. Week by week the
meetings were held and the audiences grew bigger and
bigger. The accused persons, amongst whom were
J. Bruce Glasier, Keir Hardie and Mrs. Pankhurst
the latter not yet notorious in the suffrage movement-
defended themselves in court. Boggart Hole Clough
and the Manchester Court House became the two most
interesting places in Lancashire, both radiating valuable
Socialist propaganda. Notices of appeal to higher
courts were intimated, and Boggart Hole Clough
threatened to become a national question. The
stipendiary began to find excuses for adjourning without
passing sentence. The climax came when Hardie
intimated that he had four hundred and seventy-three
witnesses to call. That finished it. There were no more
prosecutions. By-laws were framed which enabled the
126
FREE SPEECH
Parks Committee to climb down without too much loss
of dignity, and the Boggart Hole Clough question
ceased from troubling. The general eifect was to con-
firm the British right of public meeting and freedom
of speech, a right which not even the exceptional war-
time regulations of recent years were able to destroy.
The free speech agitation was good for the I.L.P.
At the Annual Conference held at Nottingham, in April,
there had been some signs of lassitude, due probably
to reaction from the extraordinary electioneering exer-
tions of the previous year. A by-election in May, at
Aberdeen, where Tom Mann polled 2,479 votes and
reduced the Liberal majority from 3,548 to 430, had
helped greatly to re-inspire the rank and file throughout
the country with a belief that their movement was very
far from being a forlorn hope ; and now this struggle for
free speech, which, on a smaller scale, had to be main-
tained in many other places than Manchester, provided
just the kind of stimulus required for a party, which, if it
were to continue, must be continually fighting and putting
itself in evidence in competition with the other parties.
Following quickly upon this stimulus came the
opportunity of a by-election at East Bradford, and it
was decided to contest the seat, not with much hope
that it could be won, but partly to test the strength of
the movement in a district which was the birthplace of
the I.L.P., and partly to exploit the opportunity for
propaganda afforded by a contest which would arrest
the attention of the whole country. Hardie himself was
chosen as the candidate and entered into the fray with
his customary vigour. "Not as one would/' he said,
"but as one must that I suppose is the guiding prin-
ciple, and so I go. We will make a fight of it, and the
I.L.P. has never yet had occasion to regret its by-
election contests, neither will it East Bradford."
127
J. KEIR HARDIE
It was a three-cornered contest, and like every other
parliamentary election in which Hardie was one of the
principals, was conducted with exceeding acrimony on
the part of his opponents, the Liberals as usual carrying
off the palm for unscrupulousness and making no secret
of the fact that they were more concerned to keep
Hardie out than to win the seat from the Tories. Three
years of him at Westminster had been more than enough
for them. In the words of T. P. O'Connor: "Keir
Hardie had to be fought." In the end, the Conservative
candidate was returned by a majority of 395 over the
Liberal, and Hardie received 1,953 votes.
The orthodox political oracles were not slow to
appreciate the meaning of the Labour poll. Said the
"Times" : "The Independent Labour Party seems to
have drawn away votes in nearly the same proportion
from the ministerialist as from the opposition." Said
the "Morning Post" : "We have no desire to make little
of the Labour vote in Bradford, for it is clear that two
thousand electors are ready to support a Labour candi-
date in both the Eastern and the Western divisions, and
such a body might well hope to turn the scale in the
event of a contest being confined to a Unionist and a
Radical." They need have had no dread of that
eventuality. The I.L.P. had no desire to become merely
the deciding factor between the two political sections
of capitalism. Its aim was to demonstrate the identity
of interest embodied in these two sections and to
organise the workers for the purpose of fighting both and
of destroying the system which they represent. Hardie
made this unmistakably clear, both in his "Leader"
comments and in an article which he wrote for the
"Progressive Review," at that time edited by William
Clarke. In this he derided the attempts of Liberal
spokesmen to make out that the Liberal Party and the
128
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
I.L.P. had common aims and needed each other's help.
This article was replied to in the same magazine by
Mr. Herbert Samuel, then regarded as one of Liberal-
ism's coming men, a fact which is mentioned here
simply to show how definitely the ex-miner was accepted
as the exponent of the new political force. They might
vilify and abuse and misrepresent him in theft party
press. They might ridicule and caricature him in their
comic papers. But there was one thing they could not
do. They could not ignore him. He was an estab-
lished factor in the political life of the nation, and his
influence had to be reckoned with in every move in the
game of party politics. It must be said that Hardie
never made any attempt to soften the asperities of
political controversy. He was well endowed with that
aggressiveness which is an essential part of the equip-
ment of any man who seeks to make headway on the
political battlefield, and he sought always to accentuate
rather than modify the essential antagonisms between
the old order and the new. The one thing he feared
for the I.L.P. at this time was the possible sacrifice of
independence for the sake of some immediate gain or
illusory concession, and he seemed deliberately to
maintain a situation in which compromise would be
impossible.
Nor was it from the capitalist parties only that he had
to face criticism. Strange to say, he was suspected by V
certain sections of the Socialist movement itself, notably,
the Social Democratic Federation, which, in its weekly
organ, "Justice," ostentatiously dissociated itself from
Hardie on the ground that he did not represent the
Socialist movement of this country. The chief counts
against him were that in Parliament he had muddled
the unemployment question, had at the International
Congress identified himself with the Anarchists, and
129
J. KEIR HARDIE
had said in the country that Socialism was not a question
of economics at all a series of charges which seemed
to show that the capacity for misrepresentation was not
monopolised by his capitalist critics. He replied by a
statement of facts concerning his parliamentary work
and his attitude towards Anarchism, and by a declara-
tion of his Socialist principles, which, while it repudiated
the charge of indifference to economics, showed quite
clearly that he was not the same kind of Socialist that
his critics claimed to be. "I am a Socialist because
Socialism means Fraternity founded on Justice, and the
fact that in order to secure this it is necessary to transfer
land and capital from private to public ownership is a
mere incident in the crusade. My contention is that
under present circumstances we are under the necessity
of keeping this side uppermost, and my protest is against
this being considered the whole of Socialism or even the
vital part of it." He was exposed to a perpetual cross-
fire from capitalists, Socialist doctrinaires and laggard
trade unionists, and there was never any danger of his
controversial weapons becoming rusty for lack of practice.
Intellectual stagnation was not possible for Keir Hardie.
A detailed chronicle of his public activities during
these years would probably prove to be monotonous
reading, but the experiences of that period were far from
monotonous for those who passed through it. It was a
period when the struggle between organised labour,
nationally and internationally, seemed to grow ever
fiercer and fiercer. Such a chronicle would have to tell
the story of the long drawn-out Penrhyn quarries dis-
pute, in which the owner of the soil asserted his privilege
as a landlord and as an employer, by simply closing
down the quarries regardless of the men's right to work,
the consumer's demand for the commodity, and the
State's overlordship. It would have to tell of the great
130
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
Hamburg dock strike, of the help given by the workers
of this country and the strengthening of the Inter-
national Labour alliance thereby. It would have to tell
of the historic lock-out of the engineers, which lasted
fully six months and revealed itself as a determined
attempt on the part of the federated employers to
destroy Trade Unionism. It would have to tell of the
persecution, imprisonment and torture of Anarchists in
Spain, of the consequent assassination of Canovas, the
Spanish Prime Minister, and of the outburst of indigna-
tion on the part of the workers of all countries against
the atrocious methods of the Spanish Government. It
would have to tell of the expulsion of Tom Mann from
Germany, and Macpherson, the "Labour Leader" cor-
respondent, from France, and it would have to note the
slowly gathering clouds of war which finally burst over
South Africa and produced in this country a fever of
Jingoism which threatened to extinguish the I.L.P. and
all that Hardie and his associates had worked for.
To all these events and movements Hardie was in
some way, directly or indirectly, related through the
"Labour Leader" and on the platform, giving to the
wrongs of the oppressed at home and abroad, that
sympathetic publicity withheld by the capitalist press
and capitalist governments, raising funds for the
relatives of men on strike or locked out, stating the
men's case clearly and strongly, not merely in relation to
the particular industry immediately affected, but in
relation to the general Labour movement, and emphasis-
ing always the comprehensive significance of all these
troubles as the inevitable outcome of capitalism in its
present stage of development, finally curable only
through Socialism. In these years Socialists had some-
thing more to do than propound theories about value
and economic rent, and the people were in no mood
J. KEIR HARDIE
either to listen to these theories or to understand them.
For many of them the immediate struggle was with the
wolf at the door, and the business of the Socialist
agitator was to help his class to fight the wolf. It was
a serious loss that Hardie was not in Parliament during
those years.
His 1897 Christmas message in the "Labour Leader"
is not pleasant reading. 4< I am afraid my heart is bitter
to-night, and so the thoughts and feelings that pertain to
Christmas are far from me. But when I think of the
thousands of white-livered poltroons who will take the
Christ's name in vain, and yet not see His image being
crucified in every hungry child, I cannot think of peace.
I have known as a child what hunger means, and the scars
of those days are with me still and rankle in my heart,
and unfit me in many ways for the work to be done. A
holocaust of every Church building in Christendom to-
night would be as an act of sweet savour in the sight of
Him whose name is supposed to be worshipped within
their walls. If the spiritually-proud and pride-blinded
professors of Christianity could only be made to feel and
see that the Christ is here present with us, and that they
are laying on the stripes and binding the brow afresh
with thorns, and making Him shed tears of blood
in a million homes, surely the world would be made
more fit for His Kingdom. We have no right to
a merry Christmas which so many of our fellows
cannot share."
It was not often that Hardie wrote with such bitterness,
but his words were no more than an expression of the
thoughts in many minds at this time.
Not alone did the industrial struggles and their con-
comitant miseries fill the minds of thoughtful people
with fears for the future ; there were also the continued
outstretching of rival groups of capitalists in search of
132
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
new markets and the military preparations of the several
governments presaging international war.
In his presidential address to the I.L.P. Conference
of 1898, at Birmingham, speaking of these ominous por-
tents, he defined the I.L.P. attitude towards war. From
this policy the Party has never wavered either before or
since. His reference to war expenditure reads strangely
in these later days when national indebtedness is com-
puted by thousands of millions. "The terrible spread
of the war fever in these closing years of the century,"
he said, "was to be deplored. The hundred millions of
six years ago has become the hundred and six millions of
to-day. Naval and military expenditure is for ever
increasing, and no year passes without seeing its little
expedition setting out with the object of grabbing land
which is either of little use to hold or difficult and costly
to retain. When every other voice is silent it is necessary
that we should make it known that we are opposed to
war on principle as well as on account of the cause for
which it is now being waged. I do not say we should
never fight. As Rider Haggard has said: 'The
Almighty has endowed us with life and doubtless meant
us to defend it/ War in the past was inevitable when
the sword constituted the only court of appeal. But the
old reasons for war have passed away, and, the reasons
gone, war should go also. To-day they fight to extend
markets, and no Empire can stand based solely on the
sordid considerations of trade and commerce. This is
running the Empire on the lines of an huckster's shop,
and making of our statesmen only glorified bagmen."
The time was very near when these principles, so
strongly enunciated, were to be put to the severest test,
and all who adhered to them were to have their fidelity
thoroughly tried.
At this Conference, Mr. John Penny became secretary
K 133
J. KEIR HARDIE
instead of Tom Mann, whose energies had of late years
been more and more absorbed in the industrial side of
the movement, especially those international aspects of
it reflected in the Hamburg dock strike and in similar
upheavals in the Australian colonies. Tom Mann's
services to the I.L.P. in those early years when it was
finding itself were undoubtedly of very great value, and
Hardie, expressing the feelings of the entire member-
ship, did not fail to pay tribute to them.
It must be stated here that, notwithstanding the
optimistic declarations of Hardie and others, the I.L.P.
was at this time passing through the most depressing
period of its history. It had existed for five years.
It had fought numerous by-elections, but had not yet a
single representative in Parliament. It had ceased to
grow. The number of branches reported year by year
remained practically stationary, and many of these
branches were merely nominal and consisted in some
districts of small groups of die-hards who had no room
in their vocabulary for the word defeat. The Party was
at this time saved from utter stagnation by the annually
recurring municipal elections, which served to maintain
the fighting spirit locally, and by the indomitable per-
sistence of its propagandists, of whom its founder and
chairman was the chief. Hardie seemed not to know
fatigue, or if he did, never showed it. It is not too much
to say that it was his tireless efforts, carrying hope and
inspiration to the faint-hearted and despondent, that
kept the I.L.P. alive. The following itinerary of a
fortnight's work set down by himself, will serve to show
how fully his time was occupied by this propagandist
and organising activity :
Nov. 17. Left home, 12 noon; reached London
10.45 P-m-
134
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
X 8. Office work. Open-air meeting in West Ham
at night.
I9> Left London 7.15 a.m.; opened bazaar at
Halifax at 2.30; spoke at Honley at 8 p.m.
20. Halifax Labour Church, two meetings.
21. Opened bazaar at 3; addressed meeting at
Yeadon at 8.
22. Addressed meeting Mexboro'; 3 hours in
train.
23. Mexboro' to Kettering in train 3^ hours.
Feet wet trudging through snow. Meeting
at 8.
24. Kettering to London. Meeting in Canning
Town.
25. London to Pendlebury, 5 hours. Two
committees.
,, 26. National Administrative Council, 10 to 5.
Conference Social 5 to n.
27. 10.30 meeting at Eccles; 3 p.m. ditto at
Pendlebury; 6 p.m. ditto, ditto.
28. Meeting at Walkden.
,, 29. Committee in Manchester at 4. Conference
with Oldham branches at 8.
,, 30. 12.45 midnight, started home. Number of
letters received and answered, 75.
In addition he had his " Labour Leader'' articles to
write, varying from four to a dozen columns weekly. How
he managed to accomplish this work it is difficult to say.
He had long ago acquired the faculty of being able to
think and write under almost any circumstances, and
much of his journalistic work was done in third-class
railway compartments, amongst all kinds of travelling
companions; but even so, the mental and physical wear
and tear must have been most exhausting, not to speak
135
J. KEIR HARDIE
of the irregularity of meals, and the constant change of
sleeping accommodation. Yet he had never a grumble,
and every new host or hostess found him cheerful
and smiling and ready to adapt himself to every
circumstance.
During June of this year he spent several weeks in
South Wales. The great strike of the Welsh miners
had already lasted thirteen weeks and there were no
signs of a termination. The miners' demands were for
a twenty per cent, increase, the establishment of a mini-
mum wage, and the abolition of the sliding scale by
which in the past their wages had been regulated.
Though discouraged by their own official leader,
"Mabon," they had come out on strike to the number of
ninety thousand in support of their demands, and there
was privation all over South Wales. By a coincidence,
the I.L.P. associated itself with the miners' revolt. The
South Wales I.L.P. Federation had resolved upon a
special organising campaign, and had engaged Mr.
Willie Wright, a well-known propagandist, to carry
through the work. As it happened, his arrival on the
scene synchronised with the outbreak, and as most of
the local I.L.P. men were involved in the strike, there was
nothing for him to do but throw himself into the struggle.
If he could not form I.L.P. branches, he could form
relief committees, help the women and children, stimu-
late the men, and through the columns of the "Labour
Leader" make known to the Socialist movement through-
out the country the real nature and consequences of the
South Wales dispute. This he did most effectually. A
"Labour Leader" relief fund was raised, committees
formed to administer it, and many miners' children were
thereby saved from absolute starvation.
One fact in connection with this relief fund ought to
be mentioned. In response to a letter from Hardie,
136
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
Mr. Thomas Lipton now Sir Thomas sent a sub-
stantial quantity of provisions. Hardie had refused to
make use of Mr. Andrew Carnegie's money to advance
his own political campaign in West Ham, but when it
came to feeding hungry children, no rich man's money
was barred, and he was even willing to become a sup-
pliant on their behalf. Nor did he consider his free-
dom of action restricted thereby. Shortly afterwards
he was exposing Lipton as a sweating employer in a
series of "White Slaves" articles in the "Leader." On
the question at issue he had given his opinion at the
beginning of the dispute. His advice was that the men
should stand firm for the discarding of the sliding scale,
and that they should as quickly as possible join up with
the British Miners' Federation, and he spoke scathingly
of the Welsh and North of England leaders whose
policy kept these districts isolated from each other and
also from the main body, thus making a national policy
for miners impossible.
When he visited the strike area in June, he found the
military there before him, though there had not been the
slightest indication of violence or law-breaking on the
part of the strikers. At some of his meetings the sol-
diers were visibly in evidence, while at others they were
known to be in reserve and within call at short notice, a
state of matters which had an irritating effect upon the
workers, especially upon the women folk, and on several
occasions very nearly produced the result which the
presence of the military was supposed to avert. The
absence of rioting during this dispute was certainly not
due to any lack of incentive on the part of the authorities.
In his public utterances Hardie did not hide his
contempt for what he considered to be the timid and
temporising attitude of the miners' representatives in
Parliament, who had made no protest against the
137
J. KEIR HARDIE
presence of the soldiers in Wales, and who, in his
opinion, had utterly failed to make use of their parlia-
mentary opportunities on behalf of the men on strike.
Probably never more than at this time did he regret his
enforced absence from the House of Commons. And,
certainly, looking back on his activities during the Hull
strike, we can easily imagine how, from the floor of St.
Stephen's, he would have turned the eyes of the whole
country towards South Wales, especially as in this case
he would have been fighting for his own craft and
speaking of conditions concerning which he had practical
knowledge. The Welshmen, for their part, did not
regard him as a stranger or outsider. They knew him to
be a miner. If they had any doubt, his homely talk soon
dispelled it. They had not forgotten his outspoken
championship in connection with the Albion colliery
disaster a few years previously, while the touch of
religious fervour with which most of his speeches were
warmed was very much to their liking. He addressed
some fourteen or fifteen meetings, mostly in the Rhondda
and Merthyr districts, and he has recorded the fact that
there was rain at all these meetings, and that nearly
every day he got wet through. In the Merthyr district
the campaign was organised by the active spirits of the
I.L.P., one of the most enthusiastic of these being
Llewellyn Francis, of Penydarren, whose barber's shop
became the rendezvous for all the most advanced men,
whose assembling together provided the nucleus of
that organisation which, two years later, sent Hardie
once more to Parliament under circumstances which
made that achievement seem almost miraculous. That
this ulterior result had no place in Hardie's mind will be
seen when we come to describe the electoral activities
of that time.
^ The strike ended early in September in the defeat of
138
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
the men, who had held out for full six months. But it
was not unfruitful politically. When it started there
were no more than half-a-dozen branches of the I. L. P.
in all South Wales. When it finished there were thirty-
one, some of them with upwards of two hundred
members.
In the second week of September a Conference of all
the I.L.P. branches in the Merthyr, Dowlais, and
Troedyrhiew Parliamentary Division was held in the
Welcome Coffee Tavern, Merthyr, with David Davies,
railway signalman, in the chair. Willie Wright was
there also, as witness to the outcome of his labours; also
Mr. Robert Williams, F.R.I.B.A., an architect of some
distinction, resident in London, but always actively
interested in the welfare of his native Wales. Mr.
Williams was a member of the I.L.P., contributing
occasionally to the pages of the ''Labour Leader," and
had long been on terms of personal friendship with
Hardie. During the strike he had rendered assistance,
especially in the organising of concerts in London by
a Welsh choir on behalf of the relief funds, and his co-
operation in the project for the return of a Socialist
representative had therefore considerable weight with
the miners. At this Conference the resolve was taken
that, come the General Election when it might, the
Division would be fought for Socialism. From that day
onward the preparations for a contest proceeded apace.
That the dissolution of Parliament could not be very
far away was the general opinion in political circles, and
the question as to what should be the I.L.P. plan of cam-
paign was giving the leaders and the rank and file much
concern. There were two possible policies. Either to
encourage the branches to contest seats in a large num-
ber of constituencies and make the General Election
a national propaganda campaign for Socialism, or to
139
J. KEIR HARDIE
contest a small number of carefully-chosen constitu-
encies with the definite purpose of getting a few I.L.P.
members into Parliament. The N.A.C. favoured the
latter policy and recommended to the Annual Confer-
ence at Leeds, in 1899, that twenty-five seats should be
fought and all the finance and electoral machinery of the
Party be directed towards winning these seats. This
was the plan agreed upon, but of course the advocates
of neither the one policy nor the other could foresee the
very exceptional conditions under which the election
actually did take place. Hardie himself had not at this
time been selected for any constituency. He had been
asked to allow himself to be nominated again for West
Ham, where there was every reason to believe he would
be successful, but Will T^torne having signified his inten-
tion of fighting the seat, Hardie abandoned it to him,
much to his regret. Thorne was subsequently elected.
This year took place what was known as the "Over-
toun Exposure." This, though in perspective occupying
a very minor place in Hardie's life-work, must be
referred to here because of the sensation which it caused
at the time, the heart-searchings which it stimulated
amongst large sections of sincerely religious people, and
the striking illustration which it afforded of the evils
inseparable from modern commercialism. In the month
of April, a strike occurred amongst the labourers in
Shawfield Chemical Works, at Rutherglen, near Glas-
gow. Had the demands of the men, which were
absurdly moderate, been granted, there would probably
have been no Overtoun exposure. They were refused,
and the workers, who were totally unorganised, solicited
the help of the "Labour Leader" to give publicity to
their grievances. Inquiries were made and revealed
very grievous conditions. It was found that the men
had to work twelve hours a day for seven days a week,
140
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
and that without any meal time; that the wages paid
were 3d. and 4d. an hour; that the nature of the work
in the manufacture of chrome potash was exceedingly
injurious to the health of the workers, producing
virulent and incurable skin diseases, and affecting
devastatingly the respiratory and digestive organs ; that
there was no attempt by the management to provide
adequate protection against these physical evils; and
that the sanitary arrangements in some parts of the
works were nil, and in other parts limited to the bare
minimum enjoined by law.
The head of the firm and virtual owner was Lord
Overtoun, a gentleman held in the highest esteem in
religious and philanthropic circles for his good works.
He had been made a peer in recognition of his "great
worth as a moral and religious reformer." His esti-
mated spendings on charity amounted to 10,000 a year.
He was a leading light in the councils of the Free
Church of Scotland, and was himself a frequent preacher
of the "Gospel of Christ," He was a noted temperance
reformer. He was opposed to Sabbath desecration, and
had headed deputations in opposition to the running of
Sunday trams in Glasgow. In politics he was a Liberal
and contributed substantially to the party funds. The
"Labour Leader," in a series of articles which, because
of the controversy created, continued for several months,
depicted these two contrasting sets of facts. The cir-
culation of the "Leader" went up by leaps and bounds.
The articles were reproduced in pamphlet form and the
sale was enormous. Then there came a day when the
printer of the "Labour Leader" refused to print any
more references to Lord Overtoun, and the paper
appeared with a blank page, save for an explanatory
note by David Lowe, the managing editor. Another
printer was got, and the paper came out the following
141
J. KEIR HARDIE
week with the Overtoun article included. An inter-
dict was obtained against one of the pamphlets because
of a personal reference to a certain clergyman who had
tried to defend Lord Overtoun. The offending passage
was deleted, and the pamphlet went out to meet a
demand which had only been increased by the attempt
to prevent its publication. And so the interest kept on
growing likewise the number of Har die's friends and
enemies, the latter, of course, attributing to him the
worst of motives, and in some cases actually construing
his action as an attack on religion. There was no
possible answer to the exposure except that which placed
religion and business in two separate compartments
an answer which of necessity proved the contention
of the Socialists that religion and capitalism were
incompatible.
The vindication of the exposure was found in the
fact that as the controversy went on the conditions in-
side Shawfield Works kept improving. Sunday labour
was reduced to the absolute minimum necessitated by
the nature of the trade, better sanitary arrangements
were introduced and wages in some degree increased.
By the time this local agitation had come to an end,
something had happened which absorbed the attention
of the whole nation, and made it necessary for the
British Socialist movement to define its attitude towards
British imperialist policy. Great Britain was at war
with the two South African Republics.
142
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR MERTHYR TYDVIL
THE history of the South African War has been
written officially from the standpoint of the British
Government and also unofficially by various
writers who do not all agree in their ascriptions of causes
and motives. What we are concerned about here is the
attitude of the I. L. P. towards the war and the part played
by Keir Hardie during that time. Happily it is possible to
set forth the I.L.P. attitude quite clearly without much
traversing of ground which is covered by the historians.
On September gth, 1899, five weeks before the out-
break of war, the National Administrative Council of
the I.L.P. met at Blackburn and adopted the following
resolution, equivalent to a manifesto, for circulation
amongst its branches and for general publication :
"The National Administrative Council of the I.L.P.
protests against the manner in which the Government,
by the tenor of their dispatches and their warlike pre-
parations', have made a peaceful settlement difficult with
the Transvaal Republic.
"The policy of the Government can be explained only
on the supposition that their intention has been to pro-
voke a war of conquest to secure complete control in
the interests of unscrupulous exploiters.
"A war of aggression is, under any circumstances, an
outrage on the moral sense of a civilised community and
in the present instance particularly so, considering the
sordid character of the real objects aimed at.
143
J. KEIR HARDIE
"It is especially humiliating to the democratic instincts
of this country that an ulterior and unworthy motive
should be hidden under pretence of broadening the
political liberties of the Uitlanders. Even if the admitted
grievances of the Uitlanders were the real reason of the
threatened hostilities, war would be an extreme course
quite uncalled for.
"We also protest against the action of the press and
the bulk of the leading politicians in strengthening the
criminal conduct of the Government by misleading the
public and rousing the passion for war, and we express
the hope that it may not yet be too late for the manhood
of the nation to prevent this outrage upon the conscience
of our common humanity/'
This, let it be repeated, was five weeks before the
outbreak of war. The members present were J. Keir
Hardie (in the chair), France Littlewood, J. Bruce
Glasier, Philip Snowden, H. Russell Smart, J. Ramsay
MacDonald, James Parker, Joseph Burgess and John
Penny (Secretary). In thus definitely and uncompro-
misingly setting forth the I.L.P. conception of the causes
of the war and the Party's policy towards ft, the N.A.C.
took a step which decided, amongst other things, that
for several years to come the I.L.P. would be the most
unpopular Party and its adherents and leaders the most
bitterly abused persons in the country. The Liberal
Party escaped this odium by reason of the fact that having
no alternative policy, it virtually acquiesced in the war,
while criticising the diplomacy which had brought it
about. Some few men there were in both of the orthodox
parties who rose above party and even above class
interests. Sir Edward Clarke, Q.C., one of the ablest
of Tories, and destined in the ordinary course of events
to reach the Woolsack, openly opposed the Government
policy and sacrificed the remainder of his political life
144
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
rather than be a consenting party to what he described
as an absolutely unnecessary war caused by diplomatic
blundering, the real responsibility for which, he declared,
"rested upon Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Alfred Milner."
On the Liberal side, Sir Robert Reid (now Lord Lore-
burn), Mr. James Bryce, Mr. John Morley, Mr. Lloyd
George and Mr. John Burns spoke out strongly, but
their utterances were more than counterbalanced by the
Imperialistic declarations of Lord Rosebery, Sir Edward
Grey and Mr. Asquith, the real mouthpieces of official
Liberalism. Sir William Harcourt and Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman at the beginning blew neither hot
nor cold. Inside the House of Commons, the only defin-
ite opposition came from the Irish Party. Outside in the
country, the only British political parties opposing the
war policy were the I . L . P . and the S . D . F . , parties with-
out a single representative in Parliament. The press,
with the exception of the "Morning Leader/ 5 the "Man-
chester Guardian," the "Edinburgh Evening News/'
and Mr. Stead's monthly, "Review of Reviews," was
wholly with the Government, and soon succeeded making
the war thoroughly popular with the masses and in creat-
ing an environment of intolerance in which free speech
was well-nigh impossible. To Hardie and the other
I.L.P. leaders it was a source of satisfaction to find that
they had the support of the rank and file membership.
Indeed, it is not too much to say that the membership of
the I.L.P. constituted the only section of the community
that was well informed concerning the questions at
issue. South African affairs had received special atten-
tion in the "Labour Leader," and latterly, a series of
articles signed "Kopje," which was the nom de plume
of an exceedingly capable South African journalist, pro-
vided the readers of Hardie's paper with an account of
the doings of the Chartered Company's agents and
145
J. KEIR HARDIE
officials as viewed through other glasses than those of the
Imperialist or the gold seeker, and described the develop-
ment of the Cecil Rhodes' policy as it affected the
natives, the Boer farmers and the Chartered Company's
white employees, otherwise known as Uitlanders. Other
writers in the same paper had turned a somewhat
piercing searchlight upon the share lists of the Chartered
Company and De Beers Ltd., and upon the manner in
which influential members of these companies with high
social status in this country were in a position to influence
the colonial policy, of the Government, itself well
impregnated with Imperialist tendencies. I.L.P.
members were therefore quite able to distinguish between
the ostensible and the real causes of the war. They did
not believe that it was a war to right the wrongs of the
Uitlanders. They did not believe that the military
power of Great Britain was being used merely to estab-
lish franchise rights in the Transvaal which had been
refused to the people at home for half a century and were
still withheld from womenfolk in this country. They did
believe that already the process of fusion between the
Dutch settlers and the British incomers had begun, and
would, in course of time quite measurable, complete
itself through intermarriage, social intercourse and
mutual interest. They knew something about the
diamond mines and the gold mines, the De Beers' com-
pounds and the forced native labour, and they believed
with their National Executive that the war was a "war
of conquest to secure complete control of the Transvaal
in the interests of unscrupulous exploiters." When
Hardie, Glasier, MacDonald, Snowden and the other
leaders declared wholeheartedly against the war, it was
with the knowledge that they had their people behind
them, few in numbers comparatively, but dependable
and stout of heart.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
To the I.L.P., however, the struggle raised a
question much greater than whether Boer or Briton
would rule in South Africa. It involved matters
materially affecting the process of world development
towards Socialism. Hardie expressed this view with
much clearness. "In the transition stage," he said,
"from commercialism to Socialism, there must needs be
much suffering. All new births are the outcome of pain
and sorrow. It was so when England passed from the
pastoral into the commercial stage. So, too, when the
machines began to displace the hand, and the factory
the cottage forms of industry. For two generations
there were want and woe in the land. So, too, must
it be when the change from production for profit to pro-
duction for use is made. A great and extended Empire
lengthens the period required for the change and thus
prolongs the misery, and it follows that the loss of
Empire would hasten the advent of Socialism. The
greater the Empire the greater the military expenditure
and the harder the lot of the workers. Modern
imperialism is, in fact, to the Socialist, simply capital-
ism in its most predatory and militant phase."
Such reasoning was incomprehensible to a populace
whose mentality seemed to be well expressed by Lord
Carrington, when he said : "We must all stop thinking
till the war is over," a condition of mind certainly very
essential to the maintenance of the war spirit. The
British nation, however, was not allowed to stop thinking
for long. This war, like all other wars, did not go
according to plan. It began in October. By Christmas
Day Methuen had been defeated at Modderfontein. An
entire British regiment had laid down its arms. General
White was besieged in Ladysmith. Cecil Rhodes, in
whom was personified the capitalist interests at stake,
was in danger of capture at Kimberley, and General
J. KEIR HARDIE
Roberts was on order for the seat of war (with Kitchener
soon to follow), and ever more troops were being
drafted out.
In face of these realities the jingo fever temporarily
cooled down, and in the slightly saner atmosphere other
people than the Socialists began to consider whether a
movement for peace could not now be started. On
Christmas Eve, Silas Hocking, the novelist, writing
from the National Liberal Club, sent out the following
letter to the press :
"Sir, There are many people who think, with my-
self, that the time has come when some organised
attempt should be made by those who believe in the
New Testament to put a stop to the inhuman slaughter
that is going on in South Africa a slaughter that is not
only a disgrace to civilisation, but which brings our
Christianity into utter contempt. Surely sufficient blood
has been shed. No one can any longer doubt the
courage or the skill of either of the combatants, but
why prolong the strife? Cannot we in the name of
the Prince of Peace cry 'Halt !' and seek some peaceful
settlement of the questions in dispute ? As the greater,
and as we think the more Christian, nation we should
cover ourselves with honour in asking for an armistice
and seeking a settlement by peaceful means. We can
win no honour by fighting, whatever the issues may be.
In order to test the extent of the feeling to which I have
given , expression and with a view to holding a confer-
ence in London at an early date, I shall be willing to
receive the names of any who may be willing to co-
operate."
Canon Scott Holland, preaching in St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, sounded an even higher note. "We should
humiliate ourselves for the blundering recklessness with
which we entered on the war, and the insolence and
148
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
arrogance which blinded us so utterly. Let there be
no more vain-glory, no more braggart tongues, and let
us at the beginning of the New Year find our true under-
standing." As an immediate result of these appeals
and the conference which followed, the "National Stop-
the-War Committee" was brought into existence. This,
with its auxiliary committees throughout the country,
organised huge peace demonstrations in most of the big
centres of industry during the winter. In nearly every
case these demonstrations had to fight against organised
hooliganism stimulated by the jingo press and the
jingo music halls, and inflamed to delirious passion as
the tide of war began to turn and the news of British
victories came across the wires.
The I.L.P. naturally associated itself prominently
with this Stop-the-War movement, and its leaders,
especially Hardie as the recognised "head and front of
the offending," had directed against them, not only the
virulence of the war press, but frequently the unre-
strained violence of the mob unrestrained, at least, by
the official maintainers of Law and Order, though
voluntary bodyguards were soon forthcoming, and the
physical force patriots learned, some of them to their
cost as they were taught again some years later that
the advocates of peace were, on occasion, capable of
meeting force with force. In spite of all the brawling
intimidation of the war party, many successful demon-
strations were held. At Leeds, Manchester, York,
Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and various other
places, the advocates for a peaceful settlement on
honourable terms were able to get a hearing, and the
very violence of the opposition secured for them some
press attention, which, though mostly derisive, adver-
tised the purposes of the movement. The Glasgow
meeting was probably typical of the others. It was
L 149
J. KEIR HARDIE
organised by a local committee of which David
Lowe, of the "Labour Leader," was secretary. The
chairman was Baillie John Ferguson, of the Liberal
Association. The speakers were Mr. Cronwright
Schreiner, of the Cape Parliament, Mr. Lloyd
George, and Mr. K. J. Wilson.
Keir Hardie, Robert Smillie, Joseph Burgess, W. M.
Haddow and prominent local I.L.P. men were present,
not as speakers, but as directors of the defending
forces. The preparations were as for a pitched battle.
Before the doors were opened to the public, the hall was
nearly filled with assured supporters. Outside there
was an expectant mob of many thousands, conspicuous
amongst them being University students and habitues
of Glasgow Clubland, and when at last the doors were
opened there was a mad rush as of stampeded wild
cattle. Only a limited number got through the defences,
and many heads were broken in the attempt. Inside
the hall, the meeting went on. In the stairways and
corridors, and at the back of the area, the battle raged.
The police, whose headquarters were next door, held
aloof with a serene impartiality equivalent to an encour-
agement to riot, until towards the end, by orders of the
Sheriff, and to save the hall property from being
wrecked, they were compelled to come into action. The
meetifag, however, was held. Lloyd George escaped
unscathed, thanks to Socialist protection, and, as history
tells, lived to become the War Spirit's most blind and
excellent instrument. The following week at Dundee
and Edinburgh similar scenes were enacted, and
Hardie, who was the principal speaker, was only saved
from maltreatment by a Glasgow bodyguard that
attended him at these places. It was a fine, exhilarating
fighting time.
But Hardie at this time was doing better work than
150
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
at peace demonstrations. He was wielding his pen with
a skill and prowess such as he had never exhibited
before, and with the possession of which he has not even
yet been credited, so much has it been the habit to regard
him either as a mob orator or as a parliamentary
extremist. A perusal of the files of the "Labour
Leader" for this period will reveal Hardie as a writer,
the reverse of declamatory and devoid of those florid
superficialities common to controversial journalism.
An article under the heading of "A Capitalist War,"
which he contributed to "L'Humanite Nouvelle," and
which was reproduced in the "Leader," is perhaps as
fine an example of compressed but accurate historical
writing as is to be found anywhere. It traces, step by
step, the development of South Africa from the first
Dutch settlement down through the successive treks,
the founding of the Dutch Republics, the discovery of
the gold fields, and the consequent incursion of the
speculators and exploiters, involving the British Govern-
ment in their adventures, and steadily as fate driving
the Boers into a corner in which they must either fight,
or surrender their national existence. He verifies all
his statements, produces his facts and authorities,
draws comparisons between ancient and modern
imperialism, and sums up his argument with a literary
skill all the more effective because it is unaffected and
does not pretend to be literary. This was his con-
clusion : "The war is a capitalist war. The British
merchant hopes to secure markets for his goods, the
investor an outlet for his capital, the speculator more
fools out of whom to make money, and the mining com-
panies cheaper labour and increased dividends. We
are told it is to spread freedom and to extend the rights
and liberties of the common people. When we find a
Conservative Government expending the blood and
J. KEIR HARDIE
treasure of the nation to extend the rights and liberties
of the common people, we may well pause and begin
to think." The latent unforced sarcasm of that last
sentence is characteristic of a literary style which is not
dependent upon expletives or invective for its strength.
At this high level he kept writing all through the war,
reviewing Bryce's "Impressions of South Africa" or
J. A. Hobson's "The War in South Africa," criticising
the supineness of the Liberal Party, examining the
.Government's defence of its policy and exposing its
evasions, and commenting upon the incidents of the war
with a wealth of argument, illustration and appeal,
directed always to the one conclusion, that the war must
be stopped. The pity of it was, that all this fine work
was limited in its effect, and never reached the people
who could have most profited by it.
The "Labour Leader," of course, shared in the
unpopularity of its editor and its party, and the circula-
tion declined^ thereby circumscribing the scope of its
.^nfluence. The lack of a newspaper press capable of
competing with the lavishly financed journalism of the
vested interests has always been the chief handicap of
the Socialist movement. Had Hardie been possessed
of a publicity organisation such as has always been at
the service of the leaders of other political parties, his
worth would have been recognised much earlier, his
influence in his lifetime would have been greater, and
some more important person than the present writer
would be at work on his biography. It was the same
lack of a publicity medium that made it necessary for
the I.L.P. to have its anti-war manifesto placarded on
walls throughout the country. There was no other
method of proclaiming its views on a national scale, and
even this was not very effective, as in many places the
bills wert torn down almost as soon as they were posted.
152
LABOUR PARTY
Amid all this war controversy and tumult, the politi-
cal education and organisation of labour moved quietly *
forward. This year was formed the Labour Representa-
tion Committee, which became the Labour Party of the
present day, and now challenges the other political
parties for control of the government of the nation.
The first step was taken in Scotland. On Saturday,
January 6th, 1900, what was described as "the
most important Labour Conference ever held in
Scotland," met in the Free Gardeners' Hall, Picardy
Place, Edinburgh, when two hundred and twenty-six
delegates came together for the purpose of agreeing upon
a common ground of political action and of formulating
a programme of social measures upon which all sections
of the workers might unite. Robert Smillie was in the
chair, and amongst those on the platform were Keir
Hardie of Cumnock, Joseph Burgess and Martin Haddow
of Glasgow, Robert Allan of Edinburgh, John Carnegie
of Dundee, John Keir of Aberdeen, with John Penny,
Bruce Glasier and Russell Smart holding a watching
brief for the I. L. P. National Council. As this meeting
is, in a sense, historical, it may be well to place on record
its composition. Trade Unions sent one hundred and
sixteen delegates. Trades Councils twenty-nine, Co-
operative organisations twenty-eight, Independent
Labour Party branches thirty-four, Social Democratic
Federation branches nineteen. The acting Secretary
was George Carson of Glasgow, whose activities
in the formation of the Scottish Trades Union Con-
gress, in 1897, na d brought him in close touch with every
section of organised labour in Scotland, and this
connection he now utilised in getting the present Con-
ference together. Smillie, in his brief remarks as
Chairman, went as usual straight to the root of the
matter. :< They had had enough of party trimming and
153
J. KEIR HARDIE
sham fighting, and were determined to be done with that
once for all and have Independent Labour representa-
tion." The following resolution was adopted : "Recog-
nising that no real progress has been made with those
important measures of social and industrial reform that
are necessary for the comfort and well-being of the work-
ing classes, and further recognising that neither of the
two parties can or will effect these reforms, this Confer-
ence is of the opinion that the only means by which such
reforms can be obtained is by having direct independent
working-class representation in the House of Commons
and on local administrative bodies, and hereby pledges
itself to secure that end as a logical sequence to the
possession of political power by the working classes."
An amendment to strike out the word "independent"
was defeated by a large majority, as was also another
amendment to define the object of the Conference as
being "to secure the nationalisation of the means of
production, distribution and exchange." The Confer-
ence, it will thus be seen, while breaking completely with
the political traditions of the past, refrained from identi-
fying itself with Socialism. It was a Labour Representa-
tion Conference, that, and nothing more. There is no
need to detail the other proceedings of the Conference,
as its decisions and the organising machinery which it
outlined were, for the most part, incorporated in the
programme and constitution of the larger national Con-
ference which was held in London in the following
month, but it will be agreed that an account of the
Labour Party movement would be incomplete, if it
failed to take note of this rather notable Scottish
gathering.
The date of the British Conference was February 27th,
1900, the place of meeting the Memorial Hall, London.
It was the outcome of a resolution passed by the Trades
154
LABOUR PARTY
Congress the previous year, which itself was the culmin-
ating sequel to the many debates initiated by Hardie on
the floor of the Congress in bygone years. On this
occasion, however, the Congress, instead of remitting
the matter to the Parliamentary Committee, had
instructed that Committee to co-operate with the Inde-
pendent Labour Party and other Socialist bodies. This
joint Committee was duly appointed, and requested
J. Ramsay MacDonald to draft a constitution for the new
Party a wise proceeding which enabled the Conference,
with the minimum amount of friction, to achieve the
purpose for which it had been called.
The proceedings of this memorable meeting are chroni-
cled in the official report and also in A. W. Humphrey's
admirable "History of Labour Representation." What
we are concerned with here is the part which Hardie
played in the Conference. He was perhaps more deeply
interested in its success than any delegate present. It
was for this, the political consolidation of organised
labour, that he had given the greater part of his life,
and although he knew well that this was not the end,
but only the essential means to the end, namely, labour's
conquest of political power, for that very reason he was
keenly alive to the possibility of failure at this particular
juncture. Against any such mischance he was watchfully
on guard. The danger of a breakdown lay in the
different, almost antagonistic, conceptions of what should
be the composition and function of a Parliamentary
Labour Party* held by certain Trade Union sections and
by certain Socialist sections. The question of the forma-
tion of a Labour group in Parliament was the danger
point. Against a proposal by James Macdonald of the
S.D.F. that Socialism be adopted as a test for Labour
candidates, an amendment by Wilkie of the Shipwrights
making a selected programme the basis and leaving the
155
J. KEIR HARDIE
members free outside the items which it contained, had
been carried after a somewhat acrimonious debate.
This was altogther too loose and indefinite, and Hardie
J intervened with a resolution in favour of establishing
a distinct Labour group in Parliament, which should
have its own whips and agree upon a policy embracing
a readiness to co-operate with any party which, for the
time being, might be engaged in promoting legislation
in the distinct interest of Labour, and, conversely,
to associate itself with any party in opposing
measures having an opposite tendency; and further,
no member of the Labour group should oppose a
candidate whose candidature was promoted by any
organisation coming within the scope of Resolution
No. i . Wilkie withdrew his proposal and Hardie's resolu-
tion became the finding of the Conference. Its virtue
lay in the fact that it committed the delegates, Socialist
and Trade Unionist alike, to the formation of an Inde-
pendent Parliamentary Labour group, and also provided
that temporary alliances with other parties should be
determined, not by the individual members, but by the
group itself acting as a unit. Probably these disciplinary
implications were not fully grasped by some of the Trade
Unionists, but that was not Hardie's fault. He never
at any time wilfully left his meaning in doubt, either to
the one section or the other. He was a Socialist, but
this was not a Socialist Conference, and even if it had
been possible by a majority vote to make it so, that would
have been an unfair departure from the purpose for
which it was called. The one thing to do at diat moment
was to make Labour Representation a fact. ' "The object
of the Conference," he said, referring to "the S.D.F.
resolution, "was not to discuss first principles, but to
ascertain whether organisations representing different
ideals could find an immediate and common ground of
156
LABOUR PARTY
action, leaving each organisation free to maintain and
propagate its own theory in its own way; the object of
the Conference was to secure a united Labour vote
in support of Labour candidates and co-operation
amongst them on Labour questions when returned."
In this way, and on that basis, the L.R.C., as it was
familiarly called, came into being. ""7
The first Chairman was F. W. Rogers, of the Vellum
Binders' Union, who will be chiefly remembered for his
persistent pioneering of the Old Age Pension move-
ment. The first Treasurer was Richard Bell, of the
Railway Servants. The I.L.P. delegates on the first
Executive were Keir Hardie and James Parker. The
S.D.F. were represented by Harry Quelch and James
Macdonald, and the Fabian Society by E. R. Pease.
Thus all the Socialist sections had a place in the
councils of the new Party, though the S.D.F. seceded
later. The Secretaryship was placed in the capable
hands of J. R. MacDonald, to whose appointment was
undoubtedly due the immediate recognition of the
L.R.C. as a new vital force in British political life.
Easter week brought the Eighth Annual Conference
of the Independent Labour Party (held this year in
Glasgow), an event which has its chief biographical
interest in that it marked Hardie's retirement from the
Chairmanship which he had held uninterruptedly since
the formation of the Party. The delegates seized the
opportunity to mark their high esteem and deep affec-
tion for the man whom all recognised as their leader.
During the session the business was suspended in order
to present him with an address wherein it was sought
to express "with gratitude and pride our recognition of
the great services he has rendered the Independent
Labour Party and the national cause of Labour and
Socialism/* J. Bruce Glasier, his successor in the
157
J. KEIR HARDIE
Chairmanship, in moving the resolution, made a speech
which is here reproduced because in some measure it
reflects characteristics common to both men, and also
because it indicates, in a manner which no amount of
biographical detail can equal, the character of the work
which had gained for Hardie so abiding a place in the
hearts of the rank and file of the Party. ' * I have claimed
of my comrades of the N.A.C.," said Glasier, "the
privilege of moving this address as one of Keir Hardie's
oldest personal friends and colleagues in the Socialist
movement, and also as a fellow-Scotsman. It is with
some emotion that I look back on the early days of my
association with him, and consider how much has hap-
pened since then to forward the Socialist cause in our
country. In those early days many of us doubted the
wisdom of his political policy as we have not infrequently
since had occasion to differ from him, but in most
instances events have shown that his wisdom was greater
than any of ours. In connection with the political issues
before our Party and the country, Keir Hardie has dis-
played a truly marvellous insight, I would almost venture
to say second-sight, for indeed I do not doubt that Keir
Hardie is gifted with at least a touch of that miraculous
and peculiarly Scottish endowment. In the House of Com-
mons and in the country he has established a tradition
of leadership which is one of the greatest possessions
of the Socialist and Labour movement in Britain. His
rocklike steadfastness, his unceasing toil, his persisting
and absolute faith in the policy of his party, are qualities
in which he is unexcelled by any political leader of our
time. He has never failed us. Many have come and
gone, but he is with us to-day as certainly as in the day
when the I.L.P. was formed. By day and by night,
often weary an3 often wet, he has trudged from town
to city in every corner of the land bearing witness to the
158
LABOUR PARTY
cause of Socialism and sturdily vindicating the cause of
Independent Labour Representation. He has not stood
aloof from his comrades, but has constantly been in touch
with the working men and women of our movement as
an every-day friend and fellow-worker. He has dwelt
in their houses and chatted by their firesides, and has
warmed many a heart by the glow of his sympathy and
companionship. The wear and tear of these many years
of propaganda have told somewhat on the strength of
our comrade, but he has never complained of his task
nor has he grown fretful with the people or their cause.
On the N.A.C. his colleagues are deeply attached to him.
He is always most amenable to discussion with them.
They do not always agree with his views, but they have
been taught by experience to doubt their own judgment
not once, but twice and thrice, when it came into
conflict with his. But I must not detain you with this
ineffectual effort to express what I feel. I shall venture
only one word more. Hardly in modern times has a
man arisen from the people, who, unattracted by the
enticements of wealth or pleasure and unbent either by
praise or abuse, has remained so faithful to the class
to which he belongs. His career is a promise and a sign
of the uprising of an intensely earnest, capable and self-
reliant democracy. He is a man of the people and a
leader of the people."
These words, be it remembered, were spoken when
the I.L.P. was passing through its darkest hours, when
its teachings were unpopular and its adherents marked
down as political Ishmaelites, and when militarism was
rampant in the country; and their utterance at such a
time indicates that not only Keir Hardie, but his col-
leagues and followers, were endowed with great faith
and great courage, and explains how it is that the I.L.P.
has survived through all the succeeding years. Hardie,
159
J. KEIR HARDIE
of course, remained on the National Council, and his
personality continued to reflect itself in every phase and
aspect of the movement.
This Conference, which was the first since the out-
break of war, confirmed and reaffirmed absolutely the
anti-Imperialist policy of the National Council, already
spontaneously approved and supported by the branches.
The Conference also issued a strong protest against all
forms of conscription, and expressed "deep sorrow at
the terrible famine that had fallen upon the toiling
people of India," which, it declared, was to a great
extent the result of the heavy taxation placed upon the
people and the expropriation of their slender resources
by the existing Government and capitalistic occupation
of India.
To focus public attention upon this latter question
was indeed impossible. The people of this country
were so preoccupied by affairs in South Africa as to be
incapable of realising the calamitious condition of India.
The I.L.P. protest was like a very still small voice, yet
some people heard it in that far away oppressed land,
and appeals came to Hardie and MacDonald asking
them to come and see for themselves how India was
governed appeals which, though they could not be
responded to then, did not go unheeded.
A general election was now near at hand. The finish
of the war, though still distant, was thought to be within
sight. The trained British forces, two hundred and
fifty thousand strong, were gradually overmastering the
small volunteer armies of the Republics, and the
tactical question for the Government was whether it
would wait for, or anticipate, the final victory before
going to the country. For the opponents of the war
policy it did not matter which. They had little hope of
coming out on top in existing circumstances, whilst the
160
MERTHYRTYDVIL
Liberal Party, as Laodicean in its attitude on the terms
of settlement as it had been towards the war itself, had
no lead to give the people. Whether the election came
soon or late the return of the Salisbury-Chamberlain
Government was a foregone conclusion.
In an open letter to John Morley, Hardie made a
strong appeal to that statesman to cut himself adrift
from the Rosebery-Grey-Asquith section of Liberalism
and give a lead to democracy. "A section of very
earnest Liberals are thoroughly ashamed of modern
Liberalism and anxious to put themselves right with
their own consciences. Working-class movements are
coming together in a manner, for a parallel to which
we require to go back to the early days of the Radical
movement. Already, two hundred and twelve thousand
have paid affiliation fees to the Labour Representa-
tion Committee. What is wanted to fuse these elements
is a man with the brain to dare, the hand to do, and the
heart to inspire. Will you be that man?" Mr. Morley
did not respond. Probably Hardie did not expect him
to do so. But the nature of the appeal indicates the
existence of possibilities which might have considerably
changed the course of parliamentary history in this
country, and of Britain's international policy.
Hardie was specially desirous that in the forthcoming
election all the anti-Imperialist forces should work in
unison with each other, and, in the "Labour Leader,"
he invited opinions as to whether or not the I.L.P.
should issue a white list of candidates other than Labour
Party nominees, who, because of their consistent opposi-
tion to the war policy, should receive the support of
I.L.P. electors. He declared himself strongly in favour
of such a course, and specially mentioned such "unbend-
ing individualists as John Morley and Leonard Court-
ney," together with some Socialists like Dr. Clark and
161
J. KEIR HARDIE
Lloyd George. The latter name classified as Socialist,
sounds strange to-day, but was certainly justified by
some of the Welsh politician's utterances, publicly and
privately, on social questions at that time.
The election came before the Party had made any
decision regarding the suggestion, but there can be no
doubt that it was acted upon, and that the anti-war
candidates got the Labour vote.
The Special Election Conference held at Bradford
on September 29th, decided : "That the full political
support of the Party be given to the candidates of the
S.D.F. now in the field, also to the Labour and Socialist
candidates promoted by local branches of the I.L.P. in
conjunction with other bodies, and to all candidates
approved by the Labour Representation Committee;
and that in all other constituencies, each branch be left
to decide for itself what action to take, if any, so as
best to promote the interests of Labour and Socialism."
Hardie was not present at this Conference, having
already entered upon a fight in two separate consti-
tuencies, Preston and Merthyr. John Penny, the
General Secretary, was also absent, acting as election
agent at Preston. So rapidly did events move that the
same issue of the "Labour Leader" which reported the
Conference gave the result of the Preston election,
Hardie being at the bottom of the poll with 4,834 votes
as against nearly 9,000 given for each of the two Tory
candidates.
It was a tremendous task Hardie had undertaken in
contesting simultaneously these two seats, so far apart
from each other, not only geographically, but indus-
trially and politically. Yet the double contest somehow
typified Hardie's personal attitude towards both politi-
cal parties. Preston was a double constituency repre-
sented by two Tories. Merthyr was a similar constituency
162
MERTHYRTYDVIL
represented by two Liberals. It was as if they had been
specially selected to exemplify his hostility to both
parties, yet, when the dissolution of Parliament came, he
had been selected for neither, and his course of action
was undecided.
For months previously his colleagues on the N.A.C.,
desirous that, whatever happened to the other candi-
dates, he should get back to Parliament, were on the
look-out for a seat which would give him a reasonable
chance of success a seemingly hopeless quest in the
feverishly patriotic state of the public mind. Merthyr,
in view of his work amongst the miners, seemed the
most promising. As early as March 2ist, we find John
Penny writing to Francis, who has been mentioned
already, and who was now secretary of the Penydarren
I. L. P., asking for an accurate and exhaustive report
upon the advisability of running an I.L.P. candidate for
Merthyr. The answer seems to have been indecisive
yet encouraging, and, on July 25th, Bruce Glasier wrote
the following letter, which is illustrative alike of the
N.A.C.'s anxieties in the matter and of Hardie's personal
disinterestedness where the welfare of the movement
was concerned :
"Chapel-en-le-Frith,
"via Stockport.
"Dear Francis, Kind remembrance and hearty
greetings to you. The N.A.C. meets on Monday at
Derby, when we shall have to take the Parliamentary
situation into most careful consideration. Among the
most important things that we shall have to come to
some conclusions upon, is the constituency which Keir
Hardie ought to be advised to contest. We all feel
that Hardie has a claim to the best constituency that
we can offer him, and we also feel that it is of the utmost
163
J. KEIR HARDIE
importance to the Party that he should be returned.
Hardie himself does not view his being returned to
Parliament as a matter of much moment, and he is only
anxious that at least he should fight where a worthy vote
could be obtained. But I am sure you will agree with
us that if any single man is to be returned, that man
should be Hardie. I am therefore going to ask you to
kindly inform me as frankly as possible what you think
would be Hardie's chances were he to contest Merthyr,
and especially what you think would be the attitude of
the Trade Unionists and miners' leaders. Hardie has
himself a warm heart towards a South Wales seat or
rather, if you will, contest but I am anxious that there
should be at least a reasonable hope of a very large
vote, if not actual success, before we consent to his
standing. I am -sure, therefore, you will give me your
sincere opinion upon the matter. You might let me
have a reply c/o Tom Taylor, 104 Slack Lane, Derby,
not later than Monday morning."
Francis, upon whose judgment much reliance was
placed, must have replied favourably, so far as the
I.L.P. was concerned, but doubtfully with regard to
the official Trade Union attitude, and raising questions
as to financing the candidate, for the following week,
on August 2nd, Glasier again wrote, explaining that "a
strong election fund committee had been nominated,
but that in most cases the local branches held themselves
responsible for the expenses." In the case of Merthyr,
if Hardie were adopted by the Trades Council, and
the N.A.C. finally approved the candidature, the N.A.C.
would, he was sure, contribute towards his expenses. If
the Trades Council declined to be responsible for his
candidature, and the I.L.P. agreed to run him with the
approval of the Trades Council, the N.A.C. might con-
164
MERTHYR TYDVIL
stitutionally take the entire responsibility (with, of
course, the utmost local help) of running him. "Hardie,
if returned, would support himself by his pen and by
lecturing, as he did when formerly in the House. There
would be no difficulties on that score." The following
passage is noteworthy for various reasons : "The elec-
tion fund will be an entirely above-board affair. The
money will be collected publicly, and we expect that
many well-known advanced Radicals will subscribe.
A. E. Fletcher, Ed. Cadbury, A. M. Thomson
("Dangle"), Arthur Priestman, etc., will probably be
on the committee."
Still the negotiations proceeded leisurely and inde-
cisively, due doubtless to the difficulty of bringing the
official Trade Unionists into line, and probably also
to the belief that the election could not come till the
spring of next year. As late as September igth, we find
C. B. Stanton, miners' agent whose strong support
of Hardie at this time stands out in strange contrast
to his violent jingoism fourteen years later urging
Francis, Lawrence, Davies and others, to attend a
conference at Abernant on the following Saturday, to
deal with the question of a Labour candidature; and on
September 2ist, John Penny wrote from Cardiff to
Francis as follows : "This morning's London 'Standard'
reports that at the conclusion of the meeting at Preston,
Hardie promised to give his final decision on Monday
next. Let me know if you expect him in Merthyr, and
if he comes through Cardiff, you might let me know the
time of his arrival so that I could meet him at the
station and have a talk. I see that he is booked up to
be at the Paris Conference next week. So, if he goes,
there will not be much time for fighting. It is now
honestly, Preston or Merthyr. My advice is go in and
win. Saturday's conference must invite Hardie and so
M 165
J. KEIR HARDIE
leave the onus of decision with him." And, finally, on
the same date, Hardie himself wrote this note, also to
Francis :
"Dear Comrade, Many thanks for your letter. /
have decided to accept Preston. It is not likely now
that Merthyr will succeed in putting forward a Labour
candidate. Your wisest policy would be to defeat
Pritchard Morgan, and thus leave the way open for a
good Labour man at the next election. He is one of
the most dangerous types the House of Commons
contains. Yours faithfully,
"J. KEIR HARDIE."
Merthyr seemed now completely out of the running,
but the following day, September 22nd, the Abernant
Conference adopted him and decided to go on, no
matter what happened at Preston. Hardie, of course,
did net go to the Paris International Congress. He
addressed huge meetings at Preston, and immediately
after the vote counting (the result of which has already
been given) passed into Wales just one day before the
polling, to emerge triumphantly as the junior Member
for Merthyr, to the great bewilderment of the newspaper-
reading British public, who had already seen his name
in the lists of the vanquished.
The victory was practically won before he arrived on
the scene, so enthusiastically did the local men throw
themselves into the contest. The N.A.C. despatched
Joseph Burgess to act asi election agent, with S. D.
Shallard as his assistant. Both of these worked with a
will in systematizing and co-ordinating the committees
in the various districts and in addressing public meet-
ings, but it was the people on the spot who had been
looking forward to and preparing for this day during
many months, and who by the most Herculean efforts
1 66
MERTHYRTYDVIL
brought every available Labour voter to the polling
booths. It was they who won the victory. Their ener-
gies were directed wholly against Pritchard Morgan,
characterised by Hardie as a "dangerous type." They
did not expect, and, indeed, did not desire, to defeat
D. A. Thomas, the senior member (known in later years
as Lord Rhondda), who was one of the few Liberals
definitely opposed to the war, and had thereby preserved
the pacifist tradition of the constituency whose greatest
glory was that it had sent to Parliament Henry Richard
of fragrant memory, known as the Apostle of Peace
and pioneer of arbitration in international disputes. Of
Pritchard Morgan nothing need be said here, except
that he was by profession a company promoter, and
doubtless regarded a seat in Parliament as a valuable
aid to his speculative activities.
Hardie only spoke three times in the constituency;
once in the open-air at Mountain Ash, once at Aberdare,
and once in Merthyr (indoors), and all on the same day.
If there were any doubts as to the result, his appearance
in the constituency at once dispelled them. Yet, coming
on the back of his Preston exertions, the one day's
labour amongst the Welsh hills in an atmosphere of
intense excitement must have strained his powers of
endurance to the utmost. Writing reminiscently when
it was all over, he says : "I have dim notions of weary
hours in a train, great enthusiastic open-air crowds in
the streets of Preston, and thereafter, oblivion. Jack
Penny tells me that my opening performance in one after-
noon included almost continuous speaking from three
o'clock till eight, with a break of an hour for tea." Yet
he was defeated at Preston and victorious at Merthyr,
though he only spent eleven waking hours in the latter
constituency previous to the opening of the poll eleven
hours of <c glorious life," with victory cheering him on.
167
J. KEIR HARDIE
And then that last tense experience as the votes were
being counted. 'The Drill Hall; the general presiding
officer; the anxious faces of the watchers at the tables
as the voting urns were emptied and their contents
assorted. Joe Burgess, confident from the start; St.
Francis, strained to a tension which threatened rupture;
Di Davies, drawn 'twixt hope and fear; the brothers
Parker, moved to the cavernous depths of their being.
Di Davies looked up and nodded, whilst the shadow of
a smile twinkled in his eyes. At length came the figures,
and Di found vent for his feelings. St. Francis was not
so fortunate. Who can measure the intensity of feeling
bottled up in the unpolluted Celt? A great cheering
crowd. A march to a weird song whilst perched on
the shoulders of some stalwart colliers, I trying vainly
not to look undignified. A chair helped considerably.
That night, from the hotel window, in response to
cries loud and long-continued, I witnessed a sight
I had never hoped to see this side of the pearly
gate. My wife was making a speech to the delighted
crowd."
The desire to be near her husband at this time of crisis;
perhaps even an intuition of victory, had drawn the hame-
loving Scots guidwife all the way from quiet Cumnock
to this scene of excitement, and probably here, for the
first time, came to her some real revelation of the insistent
call which kept her man so much away from his ain
fireside. It was certainly a great gratification to Hardie
to have his wife sharing in his triumph; a pleasure
equalled only by his sense of the thrill of pride with
which the great news would be welcomed by his old
mother in Lanarkshire, from whom he had inherited the
combative spirit that had kept him fighting from boy-
hood right up. To her was sent the first telegram
announcing the result.
1 68
MERTHYRTYDVIL
The election figures were :
D.A.Thomas 8,508
J. KeirHardie 5,745
W. Pritchard Morgan ... 4,004
Majority for Hardie ... 1,741
He took no rest, but passed immediately into the
Gower constituency to assist in the candidature of John
Hodge, of the Steel Smelters, and it was not until the
General Election was completed that he got home into
Ayrshire to meet the eager, almost boisterous, greetings
of his old associates.
Very happy weeks these undoubtedly were for Hardie.
A natural man always, he made no secret of the pleasure
he derived from the congratulations that were showered
upon him at this time; but most of all he took satisfaction
from the expressions of delight on the part of those who
had been associated with him in his early struggles on
behalf of a political Labour movement. At Cumnock,
where he was feted in the Town Hall, he found himself
surrounded by the men who had shared with him the
rough spade-work of twenty years before. James Neil,
who had led many a picketing expedition, was in the
chair. George Dryburgh was also there, and William
Scanlon of Dreghorn, and many other veterans of the
Ayrshire miners' movement. A speech by Alex. Barrow-
man so comprises almost in a single paragraph the whole
philosophy of Hardie's career up to that time, that a
reproduction of it is more valuable than whole chapters
of minute biographical detail would be.
[' "Their townsman/' he said, "had he cared to turn his
talents to personal advantage, might to-day have been
a wealthy man. Liberalism or Conservatism would
have paid a big price for his services had they been for
sale, whilst he might have found an easy life as a writer
169
J. KEIR BARDIE
for the ordinary press. But he was not built that way.
He had all his life been creating agencies through which
the spirit of democracy might find expression, and had
been content to sow that others might reap. Twenty
years ago he might have found a snug berth as secretary
to some old-established Union, instead of which, he
came to Ayrshire where the men were not organised, and
established a union that had now nine thousand mem-
bers. Not finding any newspaper representative of his
opinions, he had started one, and the 'Labour Leader'
was now a recognised power. Seeing through what he
conceived to be the hollowness of political parties, he
set to found a Party of his own, and had succeeded,
for the Labour Party was now a reality. Shallow people
might say it was Mr. Hardie's perversity and masterful-
ness that made him do these things. In reality, they
were the outcome of his intense earnestness, combined
with his extraordinary energy and ability." J
In truth, an admirable summing of Mardie's work
and its impelling motives, and, accustomed as he was
to misrepresentation, it was a joy to know that he was
understood and appreciated by those who knew him best.
A poem addressed to him by an anonymous local
poet, exemplifies, whatever may be its poetic merit, how
far from being merely materialist was the appeal which
his life had made to his comrades in Ayrshire.
" Brave Sbul I From early morn till darksome night,
For ever leading- in the fitfuil fig-ht.
Come for an hour into our social room
And, heark'ning- to our cheers, let fall the gloom
From off thy wearied face. Lay off your sword,
And laugfh and sing- with us around the board.
And when the nig-ht is doae, youir armour don,
And face again your fiercei foes all alone
Strong- in the faith that Rig-ht at last will be
The miig-htiest factor in Society."
170
MERTHYR TYDVIL
The Glasgow movement also organised a big con-
gratulatory demonstration in the City Hall, where only
ei'ght months before he had been in some danger of
physical assault.
The chairman of the Glasgow District Council of the
I.L.P., W. Martin Haddow, presided, and on the plat-
form, in the balconies, and in the area of the hall,
Socialists, Trade Unionists, Co-operators, Irish
Nationalists, besides men and women of every shade
and section of advanced political thought, joined, as
one press writer said, "to do honour to the man in whose
triumph they seemed to see the foreshadowing of ulti-
mate political victory for that democratic principle which
concentrated the aims of them all." The Merthyr
victory was indeed one of the great events of his life,
bringing to him a sense of real personal achievement,
and it was recognised as such by the people for whose
appreciation he most cared. He enjoyed it thoroughly
and made no attempt to disguise his pleasure. The
following Sunday he spoke at a meeting similar to that
at Glasgow in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester.
During the next week he was banqueted by the London
City Socialist Circle, and made a run into Wales for
what proved to be a triumphal tour through his constitu-
ency, and then back into Ayrshire for a few weeks 3
much-needed rest and quietude in the companionship of
his own household.
The children were now grown up and of an age to
understand and take some pride in the work in which
their father was engaged. The eldest boy, James, had
just finished his apprenticeship as an engineer, the
youngest, Duncan, was making a start at the same trade,
and the daughter, Agnes known familiarly as Nan-
had also left school, and was assisting her mother in
the housekeeping duties. Doubtless as they gathered
171
J. KEIR HARDIE
round the fireside they found much to interest them in
the tales their father had to tell of the big world in
which he had travelled so much; of what he had seen
in the American Wild West; of his visits to France,
and of the varied contrasting scenes of life in London
Town, and of the House of Commons and the strange
animals that frequented that place, to which he was now
going back again. He was a good story-teller, given
the right kind of audience, and what better company
could there be than his own young folk amongst whom
to fight his battles and live his life over again during
these few weeks of restfulness? And for them, too,
there was some compensation for having such an absentee
father. December 3rd saw him back at Westminster
taking his stand once again as a "one-man Party."
172
CHAPTER EIGHT
PARLIAMENT ONCE MORE "THE WHITE HERALD"
SERIOUS ILLNESS
WHEN the new Parliament met, Hardie was the
only one of the six hundred and seventy
Members who put in an appearance without
being summoned to attend. All the others had, accord-
ing to usage, been summoned by their respective party
leaders, Conservative, Liberal and Nationalist. The
Liberals even claimed Richard Bell, the other L.R.C.
representative. Hardie had no leader, and only
nominally had he a colleague. Yet he was not unwilling
to have one, as the following utterance shows : "I am
told there is a publication called the 'Gazette' in which
notices concerning Parliament appear, but never having
seen the publication I cannot vouch for the truth of the
statement. Leaders of parties, it seems, send out
notices to their followers concerning when Parliament
is to meet, and the fact that John Burns has not yet
taken to fulfilling this part of his duties accounts for my
having been unsummoned. It may be further noticed
that as the Labour Party has not yet appointed its Whip,
I am an unwhipped Member of Parliament. Does the
House contain another?"
There is here more than a hint that he would have
' been willing to recognise John Burns as his leader, and
also a suggestion that the time was opportune for the
Trade Union Members of Parliament to cut them-
selves adrift from the Liberal Party and form a distinct
J. KEIR HARDIE
Labour group. The hint was not taken, and all
through his second Parliament, as in his first, Hardie
was condemned to "plough a lonely furrow." /He did,
indeed, continue for some months hoping'" that the
working-class members would group themselves to-
gether at least for the purpose of taking common action
on industrial questions, and it was certainly no blame of
his that this did not take place. Again and again, at
this time, he went out of his way to make public his
appreciation of Burns's high debating powers, and his
belief in the possibility of forming a parliamentary
party under his leadership. But the hour had not come,
and even if it had come, John Burns was not the man.
Hardie himself was the man, but he had to await
the hour and the followers. In this House of Com-
mons he was still an Ishmael. It was well for him that,
in addition to his faith in the movement, he possessed
what many persons did not credit him with, a lively
sense of humour. The whimsicality of the whole situa-
tion gave him food for much quiet laughter.
A general election had just been held. The whole
public life of the nation had been convulsed, and the
result was a House of Commons in which the only new
feature was Keir Hardie. The Salisbury-Chamberlain
Government was in power as before. The Liberal
Party was in opposition, and, as before, impotent and
practically leaderless. The Nationalists were, as before,
at the tail of the Liberal Party. It seemed as if the
general election had been held for the sole and express
purpose of getting Hardie back into Parliament. That,
at least, was all it had achieved. In his present mood,
Parliament and all its appurtenances seemed to him
like a grotesque joke. Reference has already been
made to his faculty for literary expression. If ever, as
a supplement to this memoir, there should be pub-
174
IN PARLIAMENT
lished a selection of his fugitive writings, there will
surely be included his impression of the opening of
this Parliament. It is replete with genial, yet caustic
sarcasm, of which a mere extract cannot possibly convey
the full flavour. After explaining the preliminary mum-
meries and their Cromwellian origin, he says, "new
members in the lobby are astonished at the procession
they now behold approaching. First comes a police
official, a fine, burly, competent-looking man; behind
him follows a most melancholy-looking old gentleman
who would make the fortune of an undertaker by going
out as a mute to funerals. He wears black cotton gloves,
his hands are crossed in front of his paunch, and he
moves sadly and solemnly behind the police officer. It
might be a procession to the scaffold so serious does
everyone look. Behind the mute comes 'Black Rod/
He is gorgeously arrayed, not exactly in 'purple and
fine linen/ but in scarlet and gold lace. He moves for
all the world like an automaton worked by some
machinery which is out of gear. If ever you have seen
a cat, daintily picking its way across a roadway on a
wet day, you have some idea how General Sir M. Bid-
dulph approaches the House of Commons." And so
on, through all the proceedings down to the final exit
of the Lord Chancellor from the House of Lords, "a
squat little man, with a pug nose, trying to look digni-
fied/' Finally, we have Hardie's serious comment on
the whole ridiculous tomfoolery, which, as he sees it,
is "quaint without being impressive/' "Times and cir-
cumstances have changed during the last thousand
years, but the forms of these institutions remain
practically as they then were, which is typical of much
that goes on inside these walls. 33
A week or two later he was writing in a very different
mood, describing the naval and military pageantry,
175
J. KEIR HARDIE
attendant upon the funeral of Queen Victoria. The
Queen died on January 2ist, and it is significant that in
the "Labour Leader" the following week, his reference
was not to that event, but to the death of another a com-
paratively obscure woman Mrs. Edwards, of Liver-
pool, the wife of John Edwards, the founder of the
"Reformers' Year Book." She had been one of the
many intimate friends he had made during his travelling
to and fro among the comrades. Of her he wrote :
"She was the most kindly and unselfish creature that ever
trod the earth. Her tact and her cleverness, her ener-
getic spirit, and, above all else, the great soul, big
enough, noble enough to forgive and sweep aside the
faults of everybody and search out the kernel of good-
ness that is so often hidden by the hard covering of
one's defects." Yet the omission of any reference to
Queen Victoria's death was probably not deliberate.
He was at the time in the North of Scotland, addressing
anti-war meetings in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness,
and in the midst of this work the news of the passing of
his friend would affect him more nearly than the passing
of the monarch.
Next week, he paid his tribute to the departed Queen.
"It is as the pattern wife and mother, the embodiment
of the virtues upon which the middle-class matron bases
her claim to be considered the prop and mainstay of the
race, that Queen Victoria was known and respected.
The pomps and ceremonies of her station do not seem
to have had any charm for her, whilst her manner of
dressing was plain, almost to dowdiness. The quiet
retreat of Balmoral, far removed from the turmoil and
intrigue of fashionable society, had for her a charm
which few can appreciate. The pomp and panoply of
martial life was as far removed from such a life as any-
thing well could be.
IN PARLIAMENT
"There are tens of thousands of loyal British subjects
who loved to honour the Queen, who in their hearts
resent the association of her memory with the military
life of the nation, and in their name, as well as in my
own, I enter my protest against the barbarous display of
the bloodthirsty implements of war, amidst which the
remains of a peace-loving woman will to-day be laid
to rest."
The "barbarous display" took place in due course,
and Hardie, in a very powerful description of it, which
cannot be reproduced here, laid bare what seemed to
him to be the sinister meaning and purport of it all ;
the militarisation of the very spirit of the nation, and
the subordination of the true idea of citizenship. "In a
constitutionally governed country, Parliament, not the
monarch, is the real seat of authority. The soldier is
the servant of the State. On this occasion the soldier
was everything, the civilian nothing. The Members of
Parliament, the chosen of the people, the real rulers of
the nation they came not to take part in the funeral,
but stood upon the purple cloth-covered seats, and
gazed like so many school-children upon the military
thirty yards away. The administrative councils of the
nation were totally ignored. The cadets of the Duke of
York's Military Training College had a stand; the ser-
vants at Buckingham Palace had one; but there was
no room in all the streets of London, nor in the public
parks through which the procession passed, for a stand
for the members of the London County Council.
"As for the seats of learning, the Christian Church,
Science, Art and Commerce they were all ignored.
Having joyfully placed their necks under the heel of
the soldier, they are each receiving their meet reward."
Thus, bitterly and prophetically did Hardie read
the lesson of Queen Victoria's military funeral, the pre-
177
J. KEIR HARDIE
cursor of many a similar pageant, deliberately planned,
as he believed, to overrule the naturally peaceful ten-
dencies of the common people. Hardie was a Republican,
but never obtrusively so, and on this occasion it was
not so much the monarchy that was the object of his
attack, as the aggressive militarism which sought to
pervert the national respect for the departed monarch
to its own sinister ends.
A few months later his views on the monarchical insti-
tution itself found an opportunity for expression when
the revised Civil List, consequent upon the succession
of King Edward to the throne, came up for discussion
in Parliament. He had previously, on the King's
Speech, endeavoured to add an amendment, which after
thanking the King for his speech, expressed regret that
the monarchy had not been abolished, which the Speaker
had gravely, and without any apparent perception of
the covert humour of the proposal, ruled out of order.
He had also intervened in the debate on the
expenses of the late Queen's funeral in a manner not
pleasing to some of the Tory members whose unman-
nerly interruptions drew from him the remark that
"honourable members sitting opposite are evidently not
in a condition to behave themselves," a reference to
the after-dinner boisterousness of the said honourable
Members which the Speaker declared to be "offensive."
On the question of the Civil List he was not to be
turned aside. Under the new proposals the provision
for the Royal Family was increased from 553,000 to
620,000, but although, as a matter of course, Hardie
objected to this increase and challenged every detail, it
was on the ground of his li objections to monarchical
principles" that he opposed the entire Civil List and
divided the House, taking fifty-eight members into the
Lobby along with him, John Burns acting as his fellow-
IN PARLIAMENT
teller in the division. Of the fifty-eight, only four were
working-class Members. The other fifty-four were of
the Irish Party. The "Leeds Mercury's" description of
Hardie's deportment on this occasion may be quoted as
an aid to our general conception of the kind of man
he was, and also as a corrective to the widespread
misrepresentation of him as a mere self-advertising
demagogue. "Mr. Keir Hardie," said the "Mercury,"
"delivered a speech on frankly Republican lines. He
drew cheers from the Tories by admitting that the work-
ing class were now favourable to Royalty, and provoked
their laughter by adding that this was because the
working man did not know what Royalty meant. But
he quietly stuck to his point. The hereditary principle
whether in the Legislature or on the Throne, was, he
maintained, degrading to the manhood of the nation,
and it was the clear duty of men like himself to try to
get the nation to recognise the fact. This, and many
other things, he uttered in smooth, dispassionate, fault-
lessly fashioned phraseology. He is, in fact, one of the
most cultured speakers the present House of Commons
can boast. His doctrines are anathematised by some,
contemptuously laughed at by others, but he has a
Parliamentary style and diction that may put the bulk
of our legislators to shame."
These events and discussions extended over several
months, with much else in between, but are here grouped
consecutively, as the most effective means of setting
forth Hardie's views and attitude towards Royalty. He
never at any time went out of his way to attack the
Monarchy, but simply availe.d himself of the opportuni-
ties to do so, as they arose. . His aim, of which he never
lost sight, was the building up of a Labour Party for the
realisation of Socialism."! To this purpose, all other
questions were subsidiary or contributory. He recog-
179
J. KEIR HARDIE
nised very clearly that in his present situation, without
the support of an organised party in the House, the
only use he could make of Parliament was as a propa-
ganda platform, and even that was determined, to some
extent, by his power of arresting the attention of the
capitalist press. And this he certainly succeeded in
doing. The British people were never allowed to
forget that there was a man in Parliament called Keir
Hardie, or that he belonged to the dangerous fraternity
of Socialists.
Right in the middle of this discussion about Royalty
he found an opportunity for putting Socialism in the
centre of the stage, so to speak, though only for a brief
moment. April 23rd, 1901, is an historic date for the
British Socialist movement. Hardie, in the private
members' ballot, had been lucky enough to secure a
place for that particular date, but unlucky enough to be
last on the list. He put down the following resolution,
which, as it is the first complete Socialist declaration
ever made in the British House of Commons, must
have a place in this account of the life of its author :
"That considering the increasing burden which the
private ownership of land and capital is imposing upon
the industrious and useful classes of the community, the
poverty and destitution and general moral and physical
deterioration resulting from a competitive system of
wealth production which aims primarily at profit-making,
the alarming growth of trusts and syndicates, able by
reason of their great wealth to influence governments and
plunge peaceful nations into war to serve their own
interests, this House is of opinion that such a state of
matters is a menace to the well-being of the Realm and
calls for legislation designed to remedy the same by
inaugurating a Socialist Commonwealth founded upon
the common ownership of land and capital, production
1 80
IN PARLIAMENT
for use and not for profit, and equality of opportunity
for every citizen."
His presentation of this resolution was certainly a
most remarkable parliamentary performance. It was
half - past eleven before the preceding business
was disposed of. At twelve o'clock the House
must stand adjourned. At twenty-five minutes to twelve
Hardie rose to put the case for Socialism to an audience
mostly comprised of its enemies. Arthur Balfour was
there, drawn, as one writer said, "by the metaphysical
curiosity of the Scot, to amuse himself hearing what a
brother Scot had to say on Socialism." John Morley was
there, the parliamentary embodiment of individualist
philosophy. The young Tory bloods were there, their
hostility, for the moment, submerged in their curiosity.
The Liberal commercialists were there, interested, but
critical and incredulous. The Irish members were there,
sympathetic and encouraging in their demeanour.
How skilfully Hardie performed his difficult task, let
the capitalist press again bear witness. Said the parlia-
mentary writer for the "Daily News" : " Mr. Keir Hardie
had about twenty minutes in which to sketch the out-
lines of a co-operative commonwealth. He seemed to
me to perform this record feat of constructive idealism
with remarkable skill, and indeed it would be difficult
to imagine a creation of human fancy that would produce
more deplorable results than the society from which Mr.
Hardie in his vivid way deduced the China Expedition,
the South African War, and the London slums. Mr.
Balfour, coming back from dinner, smiled pleasantly on
the speaker, doubtless calculating that things as they
were would last his time."
The closing sentences of Hardie's speech are worth
preserving because of the prophetic note in them, which
indeed was seldom absent from any of his utterances.
N 181
J. KEIR HARDIE
"Socialism, by placing the land and the instruments of
production in the hands of the community, will eliminate
only the idle and useless classes at both ends of the
scale. (The millions of toilers and of business men do
not benefit from the present system. We are called
upon to decide the question propounded in the Sermon
on the Mount, as to whether we will worship God or
Mammon. The last has not been heard of this move-
ment either in the House or in the country, for as
surely as Radicalism democratised the system of govern-
ment politically in the last century, so will Socialism
democratise the industrialism of the country in the
coming century."
And as he said, so it is coming to pass. The new
century to which he pointed is still young, but the
democratising of industry proceeds apace. Shop
stewards, workshop committees, Industrial Councils,
Socialist Guilds, and in Russia, the Soviet system as a
method of government, are all re-creating society on
Socialist models. Many of the elements making towards
the democratic control and direction of industry are now
in operation, and so Hardie's prediction is in course
of being fulfilled. Truly, it was not without reason
that many of his associates ascribed to him the qualities
of a seer.
Meantime, outside Parliament, the movement con-
tinued to move. The Labour Representation Committee
had held its first Annual Conference, and was able to
report an affiliated membership of 470,000 workers. All
the Socialist bodies, I.L.P., S.D.F., and Fabian Society,
were represented, and although the Conference rejected
a resolution moved by Bruce Glasier on behalf of the
I.L.P. declaring for an "Industrial Commonwealth
founded upon the common ownership of land and
capital," it adopted one brought forward by the Dockers,
182
IN PARLIAMENT
I
demanding "the passing of such laws as will put an end to
a system under which the producer of wealth has to bear
an enormous burden in the shape of rents and profits,
which go to the non-producers."
The I.L.P. also, at its Annual Conference, held this
year at Leicester, was able to report considerable pro-
gress, but naturally found its chief cause for self-con-
gratulation in the fact that Hardie was once more in
Parliament, his election being, in the opinion of the
Executive, "a signal of battle, not only for the I.L.P.,
but for the entire Labour and Socialist movement of the
nation/' A proposal by the N.A.C. for the establish-
ment of a "Payment of Members' Fund," having for its
object to pay him ,150 a year as "a compensation for
the extra expenses and loss of time entailed upon him
as a working Member of Parliament," was endorsed by
acclamation, and on this modest allowance, raised by
voluntary subscription, Hardie became, for the first time,
a paid Member of Parliament. It is very doubtful if this
sum ever covered his expenses. It certainly made pro-
vision for no more than very "plain living" to which
happily he was well inured.
In the industrial world, also, events were shaping
in a way calculated to impress even the most conserva-
tive sections of the workers with a sense of the need for
parliamentary action. The Taff Vale decision, which
rendered trade unions legally responsible for the actions
of their least responsible officials, together with other
decisions making peaceful picketing a criminal offence
while leaving employers free to organise blackleg
labour under police protection, struck at the very life of
the industrial labour movement and converted to the
policy of the I.L.P. thousands who could not be reached
by street corner or platform agitation. Naturally,
Hardie, MacDonald, Snowden, and the other Labour
183
J. KEIR HARDIE
Party advocates did not fail to exploit the situation to
the advantage of their cause.
In the midst of all this work he contributed to the
Co-operative Annual for 1901 an article, informative
and suggestive, on Municipal Socialism, in which he
summarised comprehensively the results achieved up
to that time. The facts and figures have, of course,
been superseded by new facts and figures, but his argu-
ment, based alike upon historical continuity and upon
common sense, has not been superseded.
"The battle now being waged around Municipal trad-
ing is but the renewal of a struggle carried on for two
hundred years against king, cleric, and lordling ere yet
there was a Parliament in being. The issues remain the
same, however much the methods may have changed.
^As the burghers triumphed then, so will they now.
Already property of the estimated value of ,500,000,000
has passed from private to public ownership. The
citizens of our time are beginning to realise the benefits
which follow in the train of common ownership. On
every side can be seen the dawning of the idea that were
the means of producing the fundamental necessaries of
life food, clothing, shelter owned communally, as
many of the conveniences already are, the problem of
poverty would be solved."
In this way he sought to make it plain that Municipal
Socialism was simply through Local Government admin-
istration an application of the co-operative principle.
About this time, and in all the following years, he was
much in request as a lecturer by the Co-operative Educa-
tional Committees which were being formed throughout
the country, largely as the result of permeation work by
Socialist members of the various societies. To these
requests he responded as often as his other duties would
allow. His name invariably drew audiences composed
184
IN PARLIAMENT
not of co-operators only, but of the general public,
brought by curiosity to see and hear the notorious
agitator under non-political and therefore non-committal
auspices. On these occasions he usually put party
politics aside and devoted himself to co-operative
propaganda.
Frequently, in illustration of the practical value of
co-operative effort, he recalled how, in the early days of
the Miners' Trade Union movement the establishment
of the Co-operative shop in a district had enabled the
miners to free themselves from the grip of the "Com-
pany's Stores," and had thereby given that self-reliance
upon which their fight for better working conditions
depended; a practical illustration which was easily
understood, and paved the way for an exposition of the
more far-reaching possibilities of co-operation.
He believed that the co-operative movement must in
course of time, and of necessity, join hands with the
Trade Union movement for the attainment of political
power, but refrained from urging this too strenuously, *
lest premature action should be hurtful rather than bene-
ficial to both movements. The co-operative movement
has seldom had a more judicious or a more sincere advo-
cate than Keir Hardie.
In July of this year, while Parliament was still in
session, Hardie had his first touch of illness, and had to
remain in bed for upwards of a week, a new experience
to which he did not take at all kindly. The surprising
thing to his friends was that he had not broken down
sooner. He had, as one- of them said, "been doing the
work of several ordinary mortals." His correspondence
itself was enormous, and he had no private secretary.
His advice was sought by all sections of the Labour
movement. Every day brought its committees, depu-
tations, interviews and visitors from far and near; while
185
J. KEIR HARDIE
every week-end found him on the propaganda platform
in some part of the country, sometimes far distant from
London. This entailed long, wearying train journeys.
He recovered quickly, but it might have been better if
he had taken warning from this first indication that his
powers of endurance were being overstrained. He was
immediately as busy as ever, both inside and outside
of Parliament, but especially outside amongst the I.L.P.
branches and trade unions, stimulating them to get ready
with their candidates and organisation for the next
general election which he was convinced would see a
Labour Party very strongly entrenched at Westminster.
It must be said, however, that such opportunities as
occurred for testing the grounds for this optimism did
not give much encouragement. A three-cornered by-
election contest in North-East Lanark found Robert
Smillie once more at the bottom of the poll, and at Wake-
field, in the spring of the following year, Philip Snowden
was defeated by the Conservative candidate in a straight
fight. Yet these seeming rebuffs notwithstanding, pre-
parations for the election went on steadily, and the
movement continued to grow in strength. These by-
elections were regarded as merely experimental skir-
mishes, and not symptomatic of the probable results in
a general election fight.
Speaking at Clifford's Inn under the auspices of the
Metropolitan Council of the I.L.P., Hardie said,
4 'There were subtle causes at work which were hasten-
ing the movement, and amongst them might be instanced
such decisions as that recently^given by the House of
Lords in the Taff Vale case. | The power of the trade
unions through the strike had tTeen immense, but their
power through the ballot-box was immensely greater,
/ and it was only necessary for their members to learn to
vote as they had learned to strike, to secure their victoryTj
1 86
"THE WHITE HERALD"
There was reason for looking forward with absolute con-
fidence to the future. "
In the midst of all this public activity Hardie was not
free from the casual and inevitable cares and difficulties
of family life which in some circumstances may be miti-
gated, but in none can be evaded. In January, 1902,
his daughter Agnes, now verging into early womanhood,
was taken dangerously ill, and for several weeks hovered
between life and death. For the whole of that period
the father was absent from Parliament and from the
public platform. He was in Cumnock by the bed of
sickness, nursing the girl, comforting the mother and
hiding his own fears as best he could. In the first week
in February, he was able, in the "Labour Leader," to
assure enquiring sympathisers that the invalid was
making fair progress towards recovery. "She is still
weak, but with care that will pass." As a matter of fact,
this trouble left effects behind from which she could
never entirely shake herself free, and caused him to be
always more tenderly solicitous for her than for
the two boys who had inherited his own sturdy
constitution.
In the last week of the following April came another
trial, more inevitable, but none the less wrenching
because it was inevitable. "On the night when Mr.
Balfour gagged discussions regarding the Bread Tax, I
found Hardie," wrote one of his friends, "in the inner
lobby watching for a telegram. 'If I get a wire/ said
he, 'I must leave for Scotland by the midnight train/
and at the time when the House was dividing he was
going northward." He had been summoned to the
deathbed of his mother and father. .The two old people
passed away within an hour of each other, and it could
be said of them literally that "in death they were not
divided." The now famous son, of whom they were so
187.
J. KEIR HARDIE
proud, was in time to bid them good-bye. A strange
parting that must have been.
"Fear of death," wrote Hardie afterwards, "must
have been an invention of priestcraft. He is the grim
king for those who are left to mourn, but I have not yet
seen a deathbed, and I have seen many, where the White
Herald has not been welcomed as a friend and deliverer.
These two talked about death as if it were an every day
incident in their lives. They did so without emotion, or
excitement, or interest of any kind. They were dying
together, whereat they were glad. Had it been a visit
to Glasgow, three miles distant, they could not have
been more unconcerned. In fact, such a journey would
have been a much greater annoyance to father. They
never even referred to any question of the Beyond. As
Socialists they had lived for at least twenty-five years,
and as such they died and were buried. They had
fought life's battles' together, fought them nobly and
well, and it was meet that they should enter the
void together."
At their cremation a few days later, Hardie himself,
amidst a gathering of mournful friends and relations,
spoke the last parting words in the building where
thirteen years later he himself was to be carried. Out-
wardly he was calm, inwardly he was deeply moved.
"Henceforth," he wrote, "praise or blame will be even
less than ever an element in my lifework. Closed for
ever are the grey eyes which blazed resentment or shed
scalding tears when hard, untrue things were spoken
or written about me or my doings. Silent is the tongue
which well knew how to hurl bitter invectives against
those who spoke with the tongue of slander, and stilled
are the beatings of the warm, impulsive heart which
throbbed with pride and joy unspeakable when any little
success came her laddie's gait." And with this sense of
188
NEVILL'S COURT
an irreparable void in his life, he turned to work once
more.
When he returned to London he found it necessary to
make another change in his way of living. The friendly
household wherein he had been accustomed to sojourn
during the Parliamentary session, had been broken up,
also through death's visitation, and he had to look for
a new home in London a home which, in point of
rental, would not be too expensive. He found it, after
some weeks' house-hunting all over London, in NevilFs
Court, Fetter Lane, off Fleet Street, at 6s. 6d. a week.
Within a stone's throw of the "Labour Leader"
London office, and twenty minutes' walk of Westmin-
ster, it was certainly quite near his daily work, and yet
as remote from the bustle and turmoil of modern city
life as if it were a survival of mediaeval times round
which the new world had built itself indeed, it was
such a retreat. It was a tumble-down structure of the
fifteenth or sixteenth century, built of timber and plaster,
and of a most uninviting exterior. Inside, it was better.
The floor of the room had been kept clean by honest
scrubbing, and a match-board partition had been put up
so as to convert the large room into a sitting-room, bed-
room and kitchen. There was a garden, " thirty inches
wide and fifteen feet long," wherein he could grow,
and actually did grow, Welsh leeks, and primroses
and gowans transplanted from Cumnock. In a short
time, artist and craftsman friends having come to his aid,
"the gnomes were driven out and the fairies took posses-
sion and transformed this corner of slumland into a very
palace of beauty." "I would not," he said quaintly,
"exchange residences with his most gracious majesty
Edward VII, nor deign to call the King my cousin";
and here he settled down for that part of the remainder of
his life which had to be spent in London. Hither, from
189
J. KEIR HARDIE
all parts of the country, aye, from all parts of the world,
came those special and intimate friends who were of the
Keir Hardie fellowship. Collier folk from Wales and
from Scotland up to see the sights of London; poets and
painters; sculptors and literary folk; exiles from
Russia; home-returning travellers from Australia or
America, came. An Indian prince at one time, a High-
land crofter at another, and, of course, his colleagues of
the I.L.P. Council and his own family folk from Cum-
nock and Cambuslang. Never was any notoriety-hunter
or newspaper gossip-monger able to break into this sanc-
tuary reserved for himself and his intimates, and some-
times for himself alone. For it was for him one of the
attractions of this retreat that he could, when he chose,
be alone with himself and his own thoughts. "More
than irksome, it is demoralising to live always under the
necessity of having to speak and be spoken to, to smile
and look pleasant. Companionship is good, but soli-
tude is best." In this abode, right in the heart of the
hurly-burly, he could find solitude.
There are readers of this book who will be grateful
for the following picture of Hardie in his London retreat
as limned by himself on one of his nights of solitariness
when he had it all to himself. Incidentally, also, it is
somewhat self-revealing. : ' These jottings are made
this week" ("Labour Leader," June 2ist, 1902) "in
the silence and solitude of my London mansion, which is
the envy of all who have seen it. Outside, the barking
of a dog is the only sound which disturbs the clammy
night air. Despite an eighth of an acre of sloping roof,
the Toms and Tabbies keep a respectful silence.
Within, a fire burns cheerily, and the kettle sings on the
hob. The flickering candlelight throws on to the walls
quavering shadows from the tall, white-edged and
yellow-breasted marguerites (horse gowans), the red
190
NEVILL'S COURT
seeding stalks of the common sorrel, the drooping yellow
buttercups and the graceful long grasses which fill two
graceful gilt measures and a brown mottoed beer jug.
Here and there big purple bells and ruby roses lend a
touch of needed colour. From the top of the tea caddy
in the middle shelf within the deep recesses of the ingle
nook, the dual face of Ralph Waldo Emerson, fashioned
by the skilful hands of Sydney H. Morse, farmer,
philosopher, sculptor, Socialist, looks sternly philoso-
phic from his right eye across at Walt Whitman a
plaque containing a perfect replica of whose features
from the same master-hand hangs opposite whilst with
his left eye the genial philosopher winks roguishly at
Robert Burns in his solitary corner near the window.
Florence Grove lives in the two pictures which adorn the
wall, as does Caroline Martyn in the transparency for
which I was long ago indebted to our energetic com-
rade, Swift, of Leeds, whilst big, warm-hearted Larner
Sugden's presence can be felt in the little oak table with
its quaint carvings. Yes, my mansion is perfect. The
spirits of the living and the dead whom I revere are
here. Let the scoffers and the Dyke Lashmars sneer
(referring, of course, to the character of that name in
Gissing's book). To me it is as much a fact that this
room was built for me hundreds of years ago as if
Robert Williams had drawn the plans to my orders,
and A. J. Penty superintended the erection of the build-
ing. From which it will be inferred that the primitive
instincts of the race are still strong in me. And now,
as Big Ben has tolled one, and the dog has ceased to
bark, I will smoke one pipe more, and then to bed."
The beginning of June brought the end of the South
African War, which had lasted nearly three years
instead of the two or three months which it was expected
would be sufficient for the subjugation of the Boers.
191
J. KEIR HARDIE
Hardie, and with him the I.L.P., had never swerved
in opposing the British policy, and week by week, both
by speech and pen, he had supported the Boers in their
resistance to the superior military power of Great
Britain. He regarded such resistance not only as
patriotic from the Burghers' point of view, but as a
service to humanity in its necessary struggle against
capitalist Imperialism, and he was fain to discern in the
terms of settlement some guarantee for the development
of a united democracy in South Africa. Whether or not
his hopes have been justified, or will yet be justified,
does not lie within the province of this book to say. That
chapter of history is not closed even yet.
With the end of the war there came a marked abate-
ment in the jingo-fostered prejudice which had pre-
vented Hardie and his colleagues from getting, even
amongst the working classes, a fair hearing for their
advocacy of the principle of Labour representation.
They were not now so frequently assailed with the epi-
thet "pro-Boer, " and even that epithet, when applied,
had come to have a less malignant interpretation in the
minds of men who were beginning to perceive that under
the new regime South Africa was not likely to become
the paradise for British labour which had been promised.
~ The importation of cheap Central African native labour,
and the whisperings already heard of the possible intro-
duction of even cheaper and more servile Chinese
labour, helped to confirm the contentions so persistently
urged by Hardie and his colleagues on hundreds of
platforms, that the war was a capitalists' war, fought in
the interests of mineowners and financiers.
There was, for a time, a decided falling away of
patriotic fervour on the part of the working classes,
accelerated by a steady increase in the number of un-
employed, accompanied, as usual, by an equally steady
192
A CAPITALISTS' WAR
decrease in wages. To many it seemed as if the
employing classes had utilised the war distractions
to consolidate and strengthen their own position.
New combinations of employers had been formed, alike
in the coal trade, the steel trade and the textile trade,
which, taken together with the law-court attacks upon
the workers' right of combination, had all the appearance
of deliberate and well-conceiv.ed class war. In this
atmosphere of chronic discontent the argument for the
attainment of political power became more and more
acceptable to organised labour, while the indifference of
both the Liberal and the Tory Parties convinced many
that such power could only be achieved through the Inde-
pendent Labour Party. '"The unopposed return of David
Shackleton, of the textile workers, at the by-election at
Clitheroe was the first electoral expression of a change
of outlook on the part of trade unionists, the textile
workers having been hitherto amongst the most con-
servative sections of the workers. / Shackleton was not
a Socialist, but he stood definitely as an independent
L.R.C. candidate, and there was significance in the fact
that the only opponent whom the Liberals could even
venture to suggest was Mr. Philip Stanhope, who had
been an out and out opponent of the war. There was
good reason for regarding this election, not only as a
victory for Labour, but as symptomatic of a reaction
from Imperialism.
Hardie continued to be active both with speech and
pen, and did not seem to reckon with the effects of the
emotional and mental strain which recent events had
imposed upon him. Probably economic considerations
as much as anything else prevented him from taking
the rest which was now due, for the "Labour Leader,"
though again increasing in circulation, was not prosper-
ing financially, and he had difficulties in making ends
193
J. KEIR HARDIE
meet which were not revealed except to very close con-
fidants whose lips were sealed on these matters. A
prize drawing, originated by some friends to aid the
funds of the paper, was not very successful, and only
served to show that all was not well.
In September, with Mrs. Hardie, he took a short
holiday in the West Highlands, the rest-value of which
he spoilt by addressing a meeting at Ballachulish, where
a long drawn out dispute between the quarrymen and
their employers was in progress, the details of which
had been written up in the "Labour Leader" by the
present writer. In November he was medically advised
that the only alternative to a serious breakdown was
that he should go away for a complete rest. He went
for a week or two to the Continent, where he had some
experiences which were anything but restful. He was
present at a duel in Paris in which M. Gerault Richard,
Socialist deputy and editor of "La Petite Republique,"
was one of the principals. He found excitement in the
ferociously elaborate preparations, and much amusement
in the innocuous outcome thereof. He was persuaded
to visit the opera, and, to satisfy Parisian etiquette, bor-
rowed a friend's dress suit, probably his first and last
appearance in such apparel. In Brussels, he was arrested
on suspicion of being an Anarchist and detained for
several hours until he could show that he was a Member
of the British Parliament and in no way connected with
the underworld individual who had recently exploded
some blank cartridges in the vicinity of the King of the
Belgians. It was a good holiday with plenty of change
of air, scenery and circumstance, but decidedly not
restful.
He got back to London just before the Christmas
rising of the House, and signalised his return by
endeavouring to have the question of the unemployed
194
THE UNEMPLOYED
discussed on the motion for adjournment. He was
prevented, however, from doing so by the Speaker's
ruling, a decision which he characterised as an infringe-
ment of "the unquestioned right of members of the
House of Commons from time immemorial." Before
going to bed he wrote a long letter to the press which
appeared in "The Times' 5 and several other London
papers the next morning. In this he demonstrated from
Board of Trade statistics and trade union returns that
the number of unemployed workers in the country was
not less than half-a-million, and that the consequent
wide-spread distress called for immediate remedial
measures by Parliament. And so ended a year which,
for him, had been full of stress and distress, but ijot
without hope and encouragement for the cause he had
at heart.
With the opening of the New Year there came a change
in the staff of the "Labour Leader" which must be
noted. David Lowe ceased to be assistant editor, a
position which he had held almost ever since the paper
was started as a weekly. Har3ie said, in a farewell note :
"His graceful writings and his business capacity have
done much to win for the 'Leader' such measure of suc-
cess as it has attained." David Lowe, alike by his
distinctive quality as a writer and his close connection
with the "Leader" in its early years of struggle, has his
rank among the personalities of the British Socialist
movement. His place on the "Leader" was filled by
another Dundee man, Mr. W. F. Black, a journalist of
experience, who, having become a convinced Socialist,
found it impossible to continue as sub-editor of the
Liberal "Dundee Advertiser," the more especially as
he had been recently selected as Labour candidate for
Dundee.
As the weeks passed, the unemployed problem
195
J. KEIR HARDIE
assumed more serious dimensions, the discharged soldiers
from South Africa helping to swell the already formidable
army of workless folk. On Friday and Saturday, Feb-
ruary 22nd and 23rd, an Unemployed Conference was
held at the Guildhall, London, attended by 587 delegates
from town councils, corporations and Labour organisa-
tions, testifying to the nation-wide concern created by
the existing distress. At the various sessions of the Con-
ference the chairmen were Sir Albert Rollit, M.P., Mr.
Wilson, Lord Mayor of Sheffield, and Keir Hardie, no
longer standing isolated and alone, as in bygone years.
At this Conference, Sir John Gorst first mooted the idea
of local labour employment bureaux, with a central clear-
ing house, now so familiar as a part of our administrative
mechanism. It should be said, however, that Sir John
suggested these only as palliatives, and declared that
"though the symptoms of social disorder were periodic,
the disorder itself was chronic" which was equivalent
to saying that it was inherent in the capitalist system.
Hardie, as was his custom when there was a chance
of getting some practical work done, refrained from much
speaking. He moved "that the responsibility for finding
work for the unemployed should be undertaken jointly by
the Local Authorities and by the Central Government,
and that such legislation should be introduced as would
empower both central and local authorities to deal
adequately with the problem." Other resolutions along
the same line were adopted, including one by George N.
Barnes, which, if it had effectively materialised, might
have given the Conference some real and lasting value.
"That a permanent national organisation be formed to
give effect to the decisions of the Conference, and that
the Provisional Committee be re-appointed with power
to add to its number" so it ran.
This Conference was important chiefly as a symptom -
196
THE UNEMPLOYED
a sign that the r< condition of the people" question was
at last troubling society. Parliament remained wholly
unresponsive, and this period of distress, like so many of
its predecessors, had to find its only amelioration in soup
kitchens, stoneyards, and local relief works, which, as
hitherto, provided a minimum of useless work at pauper
wages. Such bodies as the Salvation Army and the
Church Army found a vocation in distributing charity.
Even in this work Hardie took a hand, and he has
related pathetically and with a kind of sad humour, some
of his experiences delivering Salvation Army tickets in
Fleet Street and on the Embankment. Not infrequently
he spent his two hours beyond midnight, after the House
had risen, assisting at one or other of the Salvation Army
shelters, thus repeating, under more heart-breaking con-
ditions, the kind of work he had performed in his own
Lanarkshire village, twenty-four years earlier. The
worst thing about it was the fatalistic patience of the
sufferers. In Lanarkshire, the men and women were at
least fighting. These crowds of helpless atoms had no
fight in them.
All this time he was toiling like a galley-slave on the
propaganda platform. Thus, on one Friday in March,
we find him speaking in Browning Hall, London, on
Saturday attending a National Council meeting in Man-
chester, the same night addressing a Labour Church
social meeting in Bolton, on the Sunday speaking in
the open air at Farnworth (in March, remember) and at
night in the Exchange Hall at Blackburn. On the Mon-
day he was present at a joint committee in Westminster
on the new Trade Union Bill, and, in the evening, he
addressed a meeting in Willesden. And he was not in
good health. He was literally giving his life for the
cause. Besides, in the "Labour Leader" he was writ-
ing more than ever before.
o 197
J. KEIR HARDIE
At the I.L.P. conference, held at York, several
changes occurred in the National Council. J. Bruce
Glasier retired from the chairmanship, having held the
position for three years, and Philip Snowden was
unanimously elected in his place. Isabella O. Ford
found a place on the Council, the Party thus expressing
in a practical way its belief in sex equality. John Penny,
who was entering into business on his own account,
retired from the secretaryship, having given invaluable
services to the Party through an exceedingly critical
period of its history. His place was filled subsequently
by the present secretary, Francis Johnson.
It may be well to note the complete personnel of
the N.A.C. at this juncture: Chairman, Philip Snow-
den; Treasurer, T. D. Benson; members of Council, J.
Ramsay MacDonald, J. Keir Hardie, J. Bruce Glasier,
James Parker, Isabella O. Ford, and Fred Jowett. All,
save Hardie and Glasier, are still, at the time of
writing, alive, and all except Parker have remained
loyal to the I.L.P. T. D. Benson retired from the
treasurership only last year. It was due largely to his
wise counsel and business-like handling of the Party's
finances that it was able with such limited resources to
do so much effective work in the political field. He
guided the Party more than once through a veritable sea
of financial troubles. The friendship between him and
Hardie was something more than a mere political com-
radeship and seemed to be the outcome of a natural
affinity between the two men,
Though Parliament did not respond legislatively to
the claims of the unemployed, it would not be true to
say that these claims found no reflection in the political
world. In March, Will Crooks was returned for Wool-
wich, and in July, Arthur Henderson was elected for
Barnard Castle, and in both contests the unemployed
198
FREE TRADE
problem was a prominent, if not a determining, factor.
Both candidates had signed the L.R.C. declaration, and
their success, in the one case against a Tory and in the
other against both a Liberal and a Tory, was decidedly
disconcerting to the orthodox party politicians, who,
with a general election once more in view, had to find
some kind of a political programme applicable or adapt-
able to the social conditions.
The great fiscal controversy re-emerged out of the
discontents of the people and the opportunism of the
statesmen. Mr. Chamberlain produced his scheme of
colonial preference, and in doing so provided both his
own party and the Liberals with a cause of quarrel cal-
culated to distract the attention of the electorate from
the new Labour Party organisation, and re-establish the
old party lines of .division. Before the end of the year
there had developed a raging, tearing platform war be-
tween Liberals and Unionists on the old "Protection
versus Free Trade" issue, by means of which both
parties hoped to rally the workers behind them. Mr.
Chamberlain urged we must believe with all sin-
cerity that in his proposals lay the guarantee against
that foreign competition which was supposed to be the
main cause of dull trade and therefore of unemploy-
ment, and that with this security of employment would
come good wages. He suggested further that the Tariff
imposts would provide funds for Old Age Pensions.
On a question of this kind, the new Labour Party could
not by reason alike of its economic principles and of its
hopes for international goodwill, avoid, taking the Free
Trade side, and the danger was that by doing so it
would lose its identity and become merged in the Liberal
Party. . Hardie was quick to descry both the Chamber-
lain fallacy, and the Free Trade tactical pitfalls. "I
am no fetish worshipper of Free Trade in the abstract,"
199
J. KEIR HARDIE
he said, "but I know enough of economics and of his-
tory to convince me that the only outcome of Chamber-
lain's proposals would be to add enormously to the cost
of living, without any prospect whatever of wages
getting correspondingly advanced. J The dislocation of
trade that would follow any attempt to set up a Zoll-
verein would throw large masses of men out of employ-
ment, which again would react in the lowering of wages.
Protection may protect rent and interest, but for the
worker, under a competitive system, there is no protec-
tion save that which the law gives him. It is to be
hoped, all the same, that organised Labour will not be
led into a mere Free Trade campaign at the heels of
the Cobden Club. A constructive industrial policy is
demanded, and the opportunity is one that should not
be wasted of proving that Labour can be creative in
legislation as well as destructive in criticism."
^Naturally, it was left to the I.L.P. to formulate and
give publicity to Labour's alternative constructive
policy, which, as was to be expected, took the form of
a series of definitely Socialist proposals of a practical
kind. ' An extensive platform campaign was arranged
and successful demonstrations held in all the large
towns and industrial centres, at which were emphasised
the failure of protection in other countries to relieve or
extenuate the poverty of the workers, and the equal
failure of Free Trade in this country to give security of
employment or improve social conditions. ' The workers
were asked "to assist in returning Labour Members to
Parliament for the purpose of promoting legislation to
nationalise the mines, railways, and other industrial
monopolies, in order that the wealth created may be
shared by the community, and not be for the advantage
of the rich and idle classes."
MacDonald (who had written for the Party a book
200
ILLNESS
critically examining the Chamberlain proposals for an
Imperial Zollverein) Snowden, Jowett, Barnes, Glasier,
and most of the leading men and women of the I.L.P.
took part in these meetings, but, alas, Hardie was not
amongst them. By the time the campaign commenced
he was out of the firing-line. Whilst in Wales amongst
his constituents, he was taken dangerously ill. The
long-threatened, long-evaded collapse had come, and he
had to give in.
The trouble was diagnosed as appendicitis, and the
doctors decided that an operation was necessary if his
life was to be saved. He himself well knew that loss of
life might be one of the consequences of the operation,
and though he took it quite calmly, the same know-
ledge sent fear into the hearts of all his friends and
right throughout the Socialist movement in this country
and in other lands. The highest surgical and medical
skill was secured, and there was something like a sigh
of relief when it was made known that the operation
had been successful. Nor was the expression of
sympathy confined to the Socialist movement. People
of every shade of political opinion, and in every grade
of society, found ways and means of showing their good-
will. The messages of sympathy included one from
Major Banes, his former opponent at West Ham, and
one from King Edward, who had recently undergone a
similar ordeal. For the time being political enmities
were with some few vulgar exceptions forgotten, and
it was generally recognised that this Labour leader was
in some respects a national possession whose character
and work reflected credit, not only upon the class from
which he had sprung, but upon the nation of which he was
a citizen. A prominent Liberal official wrote, on the eve
of the operation : * ' Forgive me if I seem to be impertinent
in forcing myself upon your notice at a time when you
201
J. KEIR HARDIE
have more than enough of vastly more important matters
to fill your mind and time. But I am sincerely anxious
that all will go well with you to-morrow. Never was
there a moment in the recent history of our country when
your great powers were more needed in the field of active
strife than now. I heartily pray that the operation may
be in every way successful. 5 ' John Burns's letter was
characteristic :
"DearHardie,
"I am pleased to hear you have come through the
operation successfully. This illness ought to be a warn-
ing to you, and to others similarly engaged who do not
realise the wear and tear of such a life as ours. Get
well, take a rest, and when recovered 'tak a thocht and
mend.' With best wishes for your speedy recovery, the
forcible expropriation of your pipe, a freedom from
articles, and an immunity from 'Marxian' for three
months.
1 'Yours sincerely,
"JOHN BURNS."
The process of recovery was very slow, and was not
accelerated by his own haste to get on his legs again.
He spent several seemingly convalescent weeks in a
nursing home at Falmouth, and managed to get home
to Cumnock for the New Year. "Marxian," of the
"Labour Leader," who met him in London on Christ-
mas Eve, wrote : "All Keir's genuine friends should still
insist that he should continue his rest from active work
until at least the return of spring. He ought really to
be banished to the Mediterranean till July next. As it
is, he is going on to Scotland and he talks of doing some
platforming before the end of January. Anyone who is
aiding and abetting this sort of thing might be more
eligibly employed stopping rat holes."
202
ILLNESS
G
His Christmas message in the "Labour Leader" was
of the nature of an official farewell as editor and pro-
prietor. In the first week of the New Year the paper
passed into the control of the I.L.P. and became the
official Party organ, thus fulfilling the original intention
of its founder, though the date of the transference was
doubtless determined by his illness.'] "From the first/'
he wrote, "it has been my intention that the paper should
one day become the property of the Independent Labour
Party. That, however, I thought would be when I was
no more. The thought of parting with it is like consent-
ing to the loss of a dearly loved child. But circum-
stances are always bigger than personal feelings. I have
no longer the spring and elasticity of a few years ago,
and that means that the pressure of work and worry
must be somewhat relaxed. But, and this is really the
deciding factor, the interests of the Party require that it
should possess its own paper. The events of the past
twelve months have borne this fact in upon me with irre-
sistible force. And so, subject to the fixing of a few
unimportant details, the 'Labour Leader' will pass with
this issue into the ownership and control of the I.L.P.
Time was when this would have been a risky experiment.
Now, with the Party organised and consolidated as it is,
the risk is reduced to a minimum. For the I.L.P. is no
longer a mixed assortment of job lots. It is an organisa-
tion in the truest sense of that much misused word."
Running through this good-bye note there is a discern-
able a note of regret that the good-bye should have been
necessary. The ''Labour Leader" was one of his tangi-
ble achievements. Something concrete, something he
could lay his hands upon and say, "this is of my creation."
He had put the stamp of his own character upon it, and
his whole soul into it. "What it has cost me to keep
it going no one will ever Enow, and few be able even to
203
J. KEIR HARDIE
remotely guess. But it has kept going, and now the
Party takes it over as a self-supporting, going concern.
I am proud of the fact." He paid full tribute to those
who had helped. So numerous were they that only a
few could be singled out "Marxian/* "who has never
quailed, and even now would like to see the thing go
on on personal lines"; W. F. Black, "who, before he
joined the staff, gave much valuable voluntary help, and
came on to the paper at considerable pecuniary sacrifice' ' ;
his brother David, "who has been literally a pillar and a
mainstay. Had he not been there, the main actors would
long ago have had to succumb''; David Lowe, "whose
services and talents were freely given at a time
when they were much needed' '; William Stewart
(Gavroche), "who has made his sign manual a passport
to the close attention of every thoughtful reader."
Of course, the change did not, by any means, involve
his complete severance from the direction of the affairs
of the paper. As a member of the N.A.C., he had his
share with the others in the control of its policy, and his
counsel had, naturally, much weight. He still continued
to be its most valued contributor, and through all his
remaining years he found in the "Labour Leader" his
chief medium for the expression of his convictions on all
public questions. At this particular juncture, relief from
editorial and financial responsibility was the best thing
for him that could have happened. His recovery was
slow and rest was imperative. During the early months
of 1904, he spent most of his time at home in Cumnock,
with occasional visits to Glasgow and Edinburgh. On
these occasions he was to be found either amongst the
second-hand bookshops adding to his collection of Scot-
tish Ballad literature, or in companionship with congenial
friends whose doors and whose hearts were always open
to him. William Martin Haddow and Alexander Gil-
204
ILLNESS
christ in Glasgow, the Rev. John Glasse and Mr. John
Young in Edinburgh, and many others besides, had
each their fireside corner ready for "Keir," and he, on
his part, had never any difficulty in making himself as
one of the family.
At home in Cumnock he had his family around him
as he and they had never been before. He had his
books, and his garden, and his dog, and, of course, his
pipe, and when the weather favoured his strolls through
the collier "raws," he could fight the early battles over
again amongst old comrades. Occasionally there was a
day's tramp across the moors towards Glenbuck, or over
the hills towards Dalmellington. But, withal, he rallied
back to health very, very slowly. He had been too near
death's door, and the winter weather in Scotland is not
favourable to convalescence.
So, as the spring advanced, he, with some reluctance,
agreed that a complete change of air and scene was
essential. Thus it came about that early in March he
was en route for the Riviera, via France and Switzer-
land, with J. R. MacDonald as his companion on the
first stages of his journey.
It was his first holiday free from political or
propagandist objective, and he enjoyed it thoroughly,
especially the last month, spent entirely at Bordighera,
which he described as "the most charming spot in the
Riviera," an impression due perhaps in some degree to
the human companionship which he found there.
"At Bordighera I was met by the Gentle Prince of
the Golden Locks, and conducted to his marble-
pillared palace, with its beautiful arched and vaulted
ceilings and tiled floors. There I met the Boy Corsair
of the Kaurie Hand a stalwart viking, a true son of
the sea and the Bold Brigand of the Mountains, to all
of whom I owe much. In plain language, they are
205
J. KEIR HARDIE
two young artists and a poet, all striving after the real
and true in life and living. There also came Africanus
Brown, the Good Physician, who literally brought
healing in his presence. The memory of Bordighera
and its warm hearts will long remain fresh and green
with me."
Week by week during these three months he contri-
buted to the "Labour Leader" descriptive sketches of
his experiences and impressions which, of course, can-
not even be summarised here. They would still bear
reproduction in book form. There are "men of letters"
whose literary fame is built upon foundations almost as
slender.
At Mentone he had an interview with the exiled
ex-President Kruger and "was impressed with the
stately dignity of the man, an exile from the land he
loves so well and from the people whom he has welded
into a nation."
June had begun when he returned home, much
the better for his holiday, but even then not fully
restored to health. "Keir Hardie," one parliamentary
correspondent wrote, on June 24th, "is back again this
week, but though he looks well, we are all sorry to hear
that he is not so well as he looks."
Nevertheless, he had come back to work, though for
the next two years more outside of the House than
inside.
For the first time since the I.L.P. was formed, he
was absent from its annual conference, held this year
at Cardiff. There was universal and sincere regret for
his absence, but also general agreement that in the
circumstances the Riviera was a better place for him
than South Wales. He was, as a matter of course, re-
elected to the N.A.C. Mrs. Pankhurst was also amongst
the successful candidates, thus adding one more force-
206
ILLNESS
ful personality to a body already fairly well equipped
with such. Mrs. Pankhurst, who had been a member
of the Party since its formation, was now beginning her
special activities in the Women's Suffrage movement
and made no secret of her intention to subordinate all
other aims to its furtherance. Subsequent develop-
ments make it necessary to note this fact.
207
CHAPTER NINE
THE CLASS WAR IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
BEFORE many months were over, Hardie was
back again on the Continent, not this time in
search of health, but to play his part in the Inter-
national Congress at Amsterdam. It was said at the
time that the Amsterdam Congress would be historical
because of the great debate on international Socialist
tactics. That is true, but not in the sense anticipated.
Probably, the real historical interest in the Amsterdam
Congress lies in the fact that it revealed deep schisms
within the "International" itself which rendered that
body wholly impotent when the supreme testing time
came ten years later. These divisions were most evident
amongst the delegates from France and Germany, the
two countries where Socialism had been most successful
in its efforts for Parliamentary representation.
In France, one section, led by Jaures, on the ground
that the Republic was in danger and that clericalism
was an ever-active menace to democracy, had been sup-
porting the Anti-Clerical Ministry, though Jaures him-
self never took office. Another section, led by Jules
Guesde, was opposed to any appearance of alliance with
the Government. In Germany, the critical examination
of Marx by Bernstein had been causing trouble, and the
German Party at its annual conference in Dresden the
previous year, had by an overwhelming vote condemned
what it called Revisionist tendencies. At the
Amsterdam Congress the German Party and the French
208
THE CLASS WAR
Guesdists joined forces to make the German resolu-
tion international and applicable to Socialists in all
countries without regard apparently to differing circum-
stances, political, economic, or historical. In reality
the resolution was aimed at Jaures and his section. It
declared the class war to be ever increasing in virulence
and condemned Revisionist tendencies and Jaures'
tactics. Bebel, Kautsky, Jaures, Adler, Vandervelde,
MacDonald, all took part in this debate. It was a
veritable battle of giants, and for that reason, memor-
able to those who were present. We are only concerned,
however, with the attitude of Hardie and the I.L.P.
towards this question of Socialist tactics. The I.L.P.
was, in its own tactics, as much opposed as the Germans V
and the Guesdists to Socialist participation in capi-
talist governments, but it had never affirmed that such
tactics should be universally applicable nor, even in
any one country, unalterable. In the case under debate,
its delegates to the Congress held that the Socialist
movement in each country must decide what its tactics
should be, that any attempt by the International Con-
gress to prescribe a given line of action would settle
nothing, and that, indeed, in any country where
Socialists themselves were strongly divided on the
matter, such an attempt would only tend to deepen
the division. As a matter of fact, there was a strong
desire amongst the rank and file of the French Socialists
for unity, and Jaures having been defeated by but the
smallest majority, no resentment was caused by the
debate and vote. The immediate result was to unite
the French Party and make possible for it those years
of political success with which the name of Jaures will
be for ever associated. The result in Germany was nil.
The controversy between the orthodox Marxian and the
Revisionist continued and produced barrenness.
209
J. KEIR HARDIE
Moreover, the I.L.P. had never accepted the class
war as an essential dogma of Socialist faith, and its
delegates could not support a resolution embodying
that dogma."! I n the British section, which comprised
delegates from the I.L.P., the L.R.C., the S.D.F. and
the Fabians, and over which Hardie presided, all this
had to be debated with a view to deciding on which
side the votes of the section would be cast, and there
were stormy scenes within the section as well as in the
Congress. In the end, there was some kind of com-
promise, and the vote of the section was given in favour
of an amendment by Vandervelde, of Belgium, and
Adler, of Austria, which, whilst affirming the whole
doctrine of Socialism and accepting the Kautsky reso-
lutions as determining the tactics of the movement, left
out those portions which condemned revision. This
amendment was defeated, but, as was afterwards pointed
out, by the votes of nations which either had no par-
liamentary system, or no strong Labour Party in
Parliament. The only European nations having
parliamentary institutions which voted against it were
Germany and Italy. "This," said Hardie, "is a fact of
the first significance and indicates clearly what the future
has in store for the movement. " Some part of that future
has already disclosed itself. The attempt to find a com-
mon measure of tactics for countries so widely separated
in industrial and political development as Russia and
Germany, or Russia and Great Britain, is doomed to
failure. Tactics must be determined by circumstances
and events.
There were two incidents in connection with this Con-
ference of perhaps even greater significance than the
debate on tactics. One was the public handshaking of the
delegates from Japan and Russia, whose countries were at
that time at war. The other was the appearance for the
210
THE CLASS WAR
first time at an international congress of a representative
from India, rn the person of Naoroji, who delivered a
strong indictment of British methods of government in
India.
A sequel to the Congress was the necessity which it
imposed upon Hardie of stating more clearly than ever
before his views on the question of political tactics, and
also on the question of the Class War. On the former,
it will be best to give his own words. The following
quotation from an article which he contributed to
the "Nineteenth Century" will serve the purpose : "The
situation, as revealed by the voting at Amsterdam is this.
Wherever free Parliamentary institutions exist, and
where Socialism has attained the status of being recog-
nised as a Party, dogmatic absolutism is giving way
before the advent of a more practical set of working
principles. The schoolman is being displaced by the
statesman. No har.d and fast rule can be laid down for
the application of the new methods, but generally speak-
ing, where the Socialist propaganda has so far succeeded
as to have built up a strong party in the state, and where
the ties which kept the older parties together have so
far been dissolved that there is no longer an effective
Reform Party remaining, there the Socialists may be
expected to lend their aid in erecting a new combination
of such progressive forces as give an intellectual assent
to Socialism, and are prepared to co-operate in waging
war against reaction and in rallying the forces of demo-
cracy. When this can be done so as in no way to impair
the freedom of action of a Socialist party, or to blur the
vision of the Socialist ideal, it would appear as if the
movement had really no option but to accept its share
of the responsibility of guiding the State. Then, just
in proportion as Socialism grows, so will the influence of
the representatives in the national councils increase, and
211
J. KEIR BARDIE
the world may wake up some morning to find that
Socialism has come."
Complementary to the foregoing statement must be
taken his almost simultaneous declaration in the "Labour
Leader," that he could not conceive of any set of circum-
stances as likely to arise in his lifetime which would lead
phim to agree to an alliance with any Party then existing.
^/ L'ln Great Britain, for the present, there is no alternative
to a rigid independence."
.This declaration occurred in "An Indictment of the
Class War," which extended through two articles in the
^/"Leader." In this "indictment" he maintained that to
claim for the Socialist movement that it is a "class war"
dependent upon its success upon the the "class con-
sciousness" of one section of the community, was doing
Socialism an injustice and indefinitely postponing its
triumph. It was, he said, in fact, lowering it to the level
of a faction fight. He objected to the principle of
Socialism being overlaid by dogmatic interpretation. He
agreed, of course, that there was a conflict of interests
between those who own property and those who work
for wages, but contended that it was the object of
Socialism to remove the causes which produced this
antagonism. "Socialism," he said, "makes war upon
a system, not upon a class," and one of the dangers of
magnifying the class war dogma was that it led men's
minds away from the true nature of the struggle. "The
working class," he said, "is not a class. It is a nation";
and, "it is a degradation of the Socialist movement to
drag it down to the level of a mere struggle for supremacy
between two contending factions." He quoted Belfort Bax
as saying that "mere class instinct which is anti-social,
can never give us Socialism," and he referred to Jaures
as declaring that out of 49,000,000 people in France,
not 200,000 were class-conscious Socialists, and to Lieb-
212
THE CLASS WAR
knecht as saying the same thing about Germany, and he
queried, "When are the proletarians to become class
conscious ?" He deduced from these facts, and from
the philosophic arguments of Bax and Morris, that
"Socialism would come, not by a war of classes, but by
economic circumstances forcing the workers into a revolt
which will absorb the middle class and thus wipe out
classes altogether."^
Speaking of the ^Communist Manifesto," upon which
the class war dogma is said to be based, he quoted the
statement of Engels, one of its authors, that "the prac-
tical application of the principles of the manifesto will
depend on the historical conditions for the time being
existing," and he recalled that the famous document was
written in 1847, "when Europe was a seething mass of
revolutionary enthusiasm."
Of the manifesto itself, he contended that, however
correct it might be as a form of words, it was lacking
in feeling and could not now be defended as being
scientifically correct, inasmuch as the materialist theory
therein expounded made -no allowance for the law of
growth or development. He agreed that the emancipa-
tion of the working class must be the act of the working
class itself, but contended that in this country the "
workers had already politically the power to free them-
selves, and that it was the ignorance of the workers which
hindered the spread of Socialism. That ignor-
ance we were now called upon to attack with every
weapon at our command, and it was because the class
war dogma led the workers to look outside themselves
for the causes which perpetuated their misery that he
opposed its being made a leading feature in Socialist
propaganda. . That Socialism was revolutionary was
indisputable, but he maintained that reformative im-
provements in the workers' conditions did not necessarily
* 213
J. KEIR HARDIE
weaken the revolutionary purpose of Socialism. He
denied that revolution required the violent overthrow
of the bourgeoisie by open war. "No revolution can
succeed which has not public opinion behind it, and
when that opinion ripens, it, as we have seen over and
over again, breaks down even the walls of self-interest."
Naturally, this "indictment" provoked a storm of
controversy within the movement. ; In this controversy
Hardie did not again intervene. He had defined his
attitude towards the class war theory, and he left it at
that. Theoretical disputation amongst Socialists was
distasteful to him. He was always more in his element
fighting the avowed enemies of Socialism than in
quarrelling with its friends. Even in fighting its enemies
his desire was, if it were possible, to make friends of
them, and in this he was not always unsuccessful.
There was no lack of problems, political and social,
calling for immediate attention problems the equitable
solution of which meant the removal of obstacles in the
path towards Socialism. Amongst these, the question
of political sex-equality was one of the most important,
and was now nearing the stage when Parliament could
not neglect it much longer. This question illustrated,
though he never used it in that way, Hardie's conten-
tions concerning the class war. The vote was demanded,
not for working women only, but for all women,
irrespective of class. It is true that a strong argument
in its favour was the large place now occupied by
women in the industrial field, their share in the staple
trade of Lancashire being specially cited as proof of
their right to the vote, but sex equality was and has
always been the basis of the demand for women's suf-
frage. Political equality with men had been demanded
not on the grounds of special industrial or social
service, but as a common citizen right. Yet in the very
214
THE CLASS WAR
fact of agreement on this fundamental principle, there
lay the germs of a disagreement out of which arose much
confusion and friction within the suffragist movement
itself. Political equality with men, but how? By
pressing for "adult suffrage, " which, of course, included
both sexes, or by demanding the franchise for women
on the existing basis for men, namely, household
franchise.
The I.L.P., of course, favoured both, political
equality being inherent in its conception of social
equality, and the National Council, with a view to
securing legislation which would not only enfranchise
women as householders, but alsb entitle them to
equality with men in any future extension of the
franchise, had drafted a Women's Enfranchisement
Bill to be'introduced by Hardie at the first opportunity.
As this is a matter of historical interest the text of the
Bill may be given. It was as follows :
"In all Acts relating to the qualification and registra-
tion of persons entitled to vote for the election of
Members of Parliament, whatever words occur which
import the masculine gender, shall be held to include
women for all purposes connected with and having
reference to the right to be registered as voters, and to
vote in such election any law or usage to the contrary
notwithstanding."
There was division of opinion as to the wisdom of
this line of advance both within the women's movement
and within the I.L.P. The Women's Social and Politi-
cal Union, in which Mrs. Pankhurst was the dominant
force, favoured the policy embodied in the above Bill,
which came to be known as the Limited Suffrage Bill.
The Adult Suffrage League, which included amongst
its leading members Margaret Bondfield and Mary
Macarthur, stood, as its name implies, for nothing short
215
J. KEIR HARDIE
of adult suffrage. Hardie, knowing well that neither
proposal would be carried without great opposition,
favoured the "limited" proposal, chiefly for agitational
purposes. "If," he said, "the women have a Bill of
their own, short, simple, and easily understood, and they
concentrate upon that, even though it should never be
discussed in Parliament until the general Adult Suffrage
Bill is reached, they would, by their agitation, have
created the necessary volume of public opinion to make
it impossible for politicians to overlook their claims."
In the main this was the view held by the Party, and
adhered to throughout the subsequent stormy period of
agitation for women's rights. This storm, however, was
as yet only brewing.
More immediate were the threatenings of trouble
from the growing hosts of unemployed workers. In
September, Hardie, in Parliament, had called the
attention of the Government to the fact that the unem-
ployed problem could not be much longer ignored, and
had, as usual, been assured by Mr. Balfour that "there
was no evidence of exceptional distress." Almost imme-
diately, as if in answer to this assertion, the unemployed
themselves contradicted it with a degree of violence
reminiscent of the times of the Chartist movement.
In Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Glas-
gow and most of the big towns, not only were there
large processions of workless people demanding that
the civic authorities should take action for their relief,
but also daily gatherings of these people in public
places. At Leeds, during one procession, windows
were broken all along the line of march. On the whole,
however, the demonstrations were orderly, and, thanks
largely to the local I.L.P. organisations, which usually
took control, the unemployed agitation began to assume
an organised and cohesive character such as had been
216
THE UNEMPLOYED
lacking in previous periods of trade depression. Hardie
was much in evidence both in the outside agitation and
in Parliament, and it looked as if the very imminence of
trouble and the call for leadership had restored him to
full health and vigour. He declared referring to the
trouble at Leeds that "if Parliament deliberately rules
these men as being outside its ken, they are justified in
refusing to be bound by laws made for the protection of
well-to-do people."
By the middle of October, the Government had
slightly changed its tune, and Mr. Long, the President
of the Local Government Board, had called a confer-
ence of the Guardians and Borough Councillors of the
Metropolitan area to consider the situation. This was
immediately followed up by Hardie with a memorial
signed by fourteen Members of Parliament asking for
a special session, and with a pamphlet in which he dealt
comprehensively with the unemployed problem, detailed
the powers already possessed by local authorities and
Boards of Guardians, and made suggestions for their
immediate utilisation. He also considered the larger
question of what the Government itself could do if it
were willing, and proposed the creation of a new State
Department with a Minister pi Industry, and a new set
of administrative councils,; to initiate work and take
in charge lands and foresKbres, afforestation, building
harbours of refuge, making new roads, and so on in
fact, a practical programme of remedies, just falling "'
short of Socialism but leading inevitably towards it, and
proving that he was no dreamer but simply a very
practical man far in advance of his time. Upon
this programme the November Municipal Elections
were fought, and resulted in a considerable increase in
the number of Labour representatives on Town Coun-
cils throughout the country, a result which was taken
217,
J. KEIR HARDIE
as foreshadowing what was likely to happen at the first
Parliamentary general election.
All through the winter the agitation continued, and
contrary to the usual experience, did not slacken off in
the spring. In April, the Government produced its
"Unemployed Workmen Bill," and in so doing con-
ceded for the first time the principle for which Hardie
had fought ever since 1893, the principle of State res-
ponsibility for the unemployment problem. As was to
be expected, the measure was not of a very drastic
character. It followed the lines of Mr. Long's sugges-
tions of six months previously, and authorised local
Councils to set up Distress Committees and Relief
Committees to be financed by voluntary subscriptions
and by a local rate not to exceed one penny in the pound
of assessed rental. Unsatisfactory as the Bill was,
Hardie recommended that it should be accepted, and
as far as possible improved in Committee. He knew well
that its very shortcomings would give rise to further
discontent and intensify rather than allay the outside
agitation upon which he mainly relied for forcing the
local authorities to do something practical, and for ex-
posing the insincerity of the Government. The Liberals,
when in power, he constantly reminded his audiences,
had been quite as futile as the Tories in their dealings
with unemployment, f Hardie was undoubtedly, before
everything else, an agitator, and in this respect was a
continual puzzle to the Continental Socialists, who
\ found difficulty in reconciling his professed rejection of
the class war theory with what seemed to them his ever
militant application of it, and when in the autumn the
Government threatened to withdraw the Unemployment
Bill, and Hardie made such an uproar in the House as
compelled them to go on with it, and arrested the atten-
tion of the whole country, the Continental Socialist
218
THE UNEMPLOYED
press was unstinted in its praise of his courage and of
his tactics^ albeit somewhat mystified by the apparent
inconsistency of his parliamentary practice with his
congress professions. He was, in fact, doing as he had
always done, facing the immediate issue and utilising
the circumstances of the moment for the purpose of
far reaching propaganda.
Agitation with Hardie was almost a fine art, and
always led on to more agitation, with an objective ever
beyond. In the present case the objective was the
coming general election. (J[t was to this end that he
created scenes in the House of Commons over the
Unemployed Bill and the bludgeoning of unemployed
demonstrations, rousing to anger the jeering back- 4
bench Tories by describing them to their faces as "well
fed beasts." 'It was to this end that he, with the I.L.P.,
projected a great series of demonstrations in support of
the Bill to be held simultaneously all over the country.
"Public opinion," he said, "is a manufactured article,
and represents that amount of agitation and education
which any given cause has been able to exert upon the
community." The devoted and tireless members of the
I.L.P. had been supplying the agitation and education
for years. He believed that public opinion was now in
existence which would establish a substantial Party in
Parliament at the first opportunity, and he was looking
forward hopefully to that event. Already he had a
glimpse of what might be possible with such a Party.
In these latter months he was no longer fighting single-
handed and lonely. The new Labour Members, Hen-
derson, Crooks, and Shackleton had been co-operating
with him loyally and steadily, and his parliamentary
work had been more congenial than ever before. His
hopes were high, and he radiated optimism throughout
the movement.
219
J. KEIR HARDIE
The Unemployment Bill passed, but was rendered
practically ineffective by the accompanying "Regula-
tions" and by the reluctance of local authorities to put
it into operation, and, as Hardie anticipated, the general
working-class discontent was intensified.
220
CHAPTER TEN
THE PARLIAMENTARY LABOUR PARTY PHYSICAL BREAK-
DOWN ROUND THE WORLD
THE end of the year brought the opportunity for
which he and his colleagues had been waiting and
working. The .Government resigned in Decem-
ber, and the Liberals accepted office with Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman as Prime Minister. As soon as
his Government was formed, he dissolved Parliament,
and the long hoped for General Election took place.
Concerning the new Government and its personnel,
Hardie had some observations to make which, in view
of subsequent history, are not without interest. Of the
Prime Minister, he said, "The most lasting impression
I have of him is when as chairman of the Unemployed
Committee of 1893, he so engineered the proceedings as
to get the winter through without doing anything for
the starving out-of-works. It may be, however, that he
has repented of the apparent callousness which the
exigencies of party forced upon him in those days, and
is prepared to atone for the past by his good deeds in
the future." From the democratic point of view the
most interesting appointment was that of John Burns
to the Local Government Board. "In his early Socialist
days," said Hardie, "he fought magnificently, but he has
not shown himself the man to lead a forlorn hope or to
stand alone in a crisis. He is a hard worker, and that
fact alone will create a stir in his department and may
lead to surprising results." Hardie coupled Burns with
221
J. KEIR HARDIE
Morley in this sarcastically back-handed way : "The
most prominent Radical in the Cabinet whose distrust
of the people is only equalled by that of John Burns.
In temperament no two men are wider apart than our
brace of 'Honest Johns/ Morley is philosophic, timid
and pedantic; Burns headstrong, impulsive and dash-
ing, but they are one in their lack of faith in the
democracy." On the other hand, of Sir Robert Reid, the
new Lord Chancellor with the title of Lord Loreburn,
he declared, "There is no man in politics with a cleaner
record or a more democratic spirit. " High praise
indeed coming from Keir Hardie. f Lloyd George, also
making his first entrance into officialdom, he described
as "a politician with no settled convictions on social
questions. He will go all the length his party goes, but
hitherto social questions have lain outside the sphere of
his orbit. As a hard-working lawyer and rising politician
he has enough to do to keep abreast of the fighting
party line without wandering into the by-ways of social
reform.'^/ Asquith and Haldane he characterised as
"cold-blooded reactionaries of the most dangerous type.
With professions of Liberalism on their lips, they are
despots at hearts, and as they are the strong men of the
Cabinet and are upholders of the Roseberian interpre-
tation of Liberalism, they can be reckoned upon to see
that this view is well upheld in the inner councils of the
Cabinet." Lord Portsmouth he summed up as "a Tory
who has left his party on the JFree Trade question."
Lord Crewe was "a recent convert from Unionism,"
whilst "a big majority of the others are Unionists in all
but name. They are all representatives of the landed
interests and they certainly have not joined the Govern-
ment to press forward either land nationalisation or the
taxation of land values." " Labour folks," he said,
"will note without enthusiasm that there are seventeen
222
THE LABOUR PARTY
land-owning peers, and sixteen place-hunting lawyers
in the new Government." He had no illusions. He was
building no high hopes for democracy on the advent
of the new Liberal Government. His hopes lay in an
Independent Parliamentary Labour Party which would
act as a spur to the Government and fight it when neces-
sary, and for the realisation of this hope he now plunged
himself body and soul into the general election turmoil.
The L.R.C. had fifty- two candidates, ten of whom
were I.L.P. nominees, while thirty-two of the others
nominated by trade unions were members of the Party.
Hardie took part personally in nearly every one of these
contests, and during the next three weeks he was
working literally morning, noon and night, in the
roughest of weather, travelling backwards and forwards
from one end of the country to the other, speaking some-
times in crowded halls and stifling schoolrooms, some-
times in the open air, and beyond doubt contributing
immensely to the success which the final results revealed.
He went everywhere but into his own constituency.
There was some doubt as to whether he would be
opposed, and as he regarded the general success of the
Labour movement as being of more importance than his
own individual success, he could not allow himself to be
tied up in Merthyr waiting for an opposition which was
problematical. Besides, he had reason to believe that his
position in Merthyr was now so secure that no eleventh-
hour opposition could possibly endanger it, a belief
justified by the result, though some of his local supporters
were not so confident, and were, indeed, considerably
alarmed by the nomination of a shipowning Liberal
named Radcliffe, whose candidature in the absence of
Hardie, semed to be making rapid progress. As at pre-
vious elections, however, the local stalwarts, Francis,
Davies, Morris, Barr an Ayrshire man settled in
223
J. KEIR HARDIE
Merthyr Stanton, Stonelake of Aberdare, and a host of
others poured into the constituency, fought the campaign
with vigour and enthusiasm, and Hardie's arrival on the
scene, worn and exhausted, just two days before the
polling, and the inspiration of victories in the country
finished their efforts. The election figures were :
Thomas (Liberal) ... 13,971
Hardie 10,187
Radcliffe (Liberal) ... 7,776
Majority for Hardie ... 2,411
It was the crowning glory of a great campaign. For
Hardie it was even more than that. It was the realisa-
tion of all those hopes which had sustained him through
long years of toil and troubles. A Labour Party, twenty-
nine strong, entered Parliament as the result of this
election, and thus another stage in his life-work had been
reached.
He was well pleased, of course, but not unduly elated.
The first Parliamentary Labour Party had been returned,
but it had yet to be tried, and he knew well that its mem-
bership comprised some men who, though their sincerity
might not be questioned, were restricted in their political
outlook by their trade union training and environment,
and in some cases by life-long association with party Lib-
eralism; they might be amenable to influences against
which he had been impervious. Better than any of them
he knew the temptations which would beset them. His
greatest satisfaction was derived from the fact that
amongst the men returned were MacDonald, Snowden,
and Jowett, all of them by majorities which seemed to
ensure their permanent presence in Parliament. Often
and often, in private conversation with comrades through-
out the country, he had anticipated the return of these
224
THE LABOUR PARTY
colleagues, and had extolled the special qualities which
would enable them to make their mark in Parliament,
and confound the enemies of Labour. With such men
as these he felt assured that whatever might be the ebb
and flow of loyalty inside or outside of the House, an
Independent Parliamentary Labour Party would be
maintained. He was now in the fiftieth year of his life,
the greater part of which had been devoted to the uplift-
ing of his class. The presence of that class now in Par-
liament as an organised force was the proof that his life
had not been without some achievement. Whatever the
future might hold in store for him, the past had been
worth while.
In the interval between the election and the assembling
of Parliament, Hardie spent a week in Ireland along with
George N. Barnes, who was also one of the victors in the
recent contest, having signally defeated Mr. Bonar Law
at Blackfriars, Glasgow. The Irish visit was meant as
a holiday, but, like most of Hardie's holidays, it involved
a lot of what other politicians would call work. They
visited the Rock of Cashel and Killarney and some of
the natural and architectural beauties of Ireland, but they
also had public receptions and made speeches at meet-
ings arranged impromptu by the Nationalist M.P.s., who
hailed as allies the new Parliamentary Labour Party and
were sincerely anxious to honour Hardie for his own sake.
They also investigated, as far as possible, the social con-
ditions of the districts through which they passed. Hardie
was loud in his praise of the operations of the Congested
Districts' Board, which he declared to be, "in fact, the
most sensible institution I have ever known to be set up
by law, and, with adaptations to meet differing conditions,
forms the model upon which I should like to see an
Unemployment Committee constituted.''
Very remarkable are his observations on the Sinn Fein
225
J. KEIR HARDIE
movement, at a time when its significance was realised
by few people in this country, much less the proportions
to which it would grow. "It appears to be," he said,
"Fenianism adapted to modern conditions. It is anti-
political and anti-English. Its supporters tell you that
the people are being ruined by being taught to look to
the English Government for reforms; that instead of
developing a dependence upon the English Government
for reforms and waiting upon English capital to develop
Irish industries, the Irish people should set about doing
things for themselves. Up to a certain point they are
individualists of a very pronounced type, but, unlike
the old Manchester school of Radical economists, they
have no fear of State action, except in so far as it tends
to undermine the spirit of the people. I speak with all
reserve as to the present strength of the movement, but
Mr. Barnes and I, from what we saw and heard, formed
the opinion that the Sinn Fein movement was bound to
play an important part in the development of Ireland."
That prediction has certainly been fulfilled.
With the entrance of the Labour Party into the House
of Commons, Hardie's Parliamentary career assumes a
new phase. His personality becomes to a certain extent,
though never completely, merged in the Party organisa-
tion. There still remained questions, as we shall see,
upon which he would find it necessary to take a line of
his own, but on the main purpose, that of developing
and maintaining a definite and distinct Labour policy,
he was to be subject to the will of the majority. This
was a condition of things very welcome to him. It had
always been irksome to him to have to take action in
any sudden political emergency without a body of col-
leagues with whom to consult. In the last year of the
previous Parliament, it is true, the co-operation of Hen-
derson, Crooks and Shackleton had somewhat lessened
226
THE LABOUR PARTY
his burden of personal responsibility, but even that was
vastly different from having a well-disciplined Party in
the House with an assurance of support outside.
Naturally, he was appointed chairman of the new
Party, which carried with it leadership in the House.
There were other aspirants for the position, but a sense
of the fitness of things prevailed, and the honour and duty
of leading the first Parliamentary Labour Party fell,
after a second ballot, to the man who, more than any
other, had made such a Party possible.
| The achievements of the Party during the next few
years need not be detailed here. The passing of the
Trade Disputes Act; the final and definite legalising
of the right of combination; the struggle for the feeding
of school children, resulting, at least, in the feeding of
those who were necessitous ; the determined and contin-
uous pressing for the right to work, ultimately compel-
ling the Liberal Party to look for a way out through
Unemployment Insurance; the forcing of Old Age Pen-
sions these and many other seemingly commonplace
achievements, yet all tending to raise the status of the
workers and increase their sense of self-respect and of
power as a class, are recorded jn various ways in the
annals of the Labour movement. ,They are part of the
history of the nation and are to a considerable extent
embodied in its institutions and in the daily life of the
people. This was the kind of work that was naturally
expected 'from the new Labour Party. Readers of this
memoir do not want recapitulation of Har3ie's share
in that work.
But it must not be assumed that either he or the
other leaders of the I.L.P. allowed their conceptions of
political activity to be limited by the immediate struggle
for these tentative though essential measures of reform.
They were Socialists, representing a Socialist organisa-
227
J. KEIR HARDIE
tion, and to them a true Labour Party must have an
international outlook and an international policy in clear
contradistinction to the Imperialist policy of the two
capitalist parties.
This wider outlook found significant expression in a
resolution passed at the instance of the I.L.P. by the
Labour Party Conference held in London immediately
following this famous General Election. This was a
v resolution expressly approving the better feeling between
Britain and France, desiring its extension to the German
people, and declaring for a general international under-
standing that would lead to disarmament. /Could it then
have been possible to have introduced the spirit of this
resolution into British international policy, there would
have been no European War in 1914. Already the
sinister implications of the Entente Cordiale, involving
as it did an alliance not only with Republican France,
but with Czarist Russia, and the division of Europe into
two hostile camps, were troubling the minds of thought-
ful, peace-loving people, who could not help connecting
the new militarist plans of the War Office with the schem-
ings of the .diplomatists.
Hardie's distrust of the Liberal Imperialist group as
a reactionary influence within the Government has
already been referred to, and from his point of view
it very soon found confirmation. Mr. Haldane, the War
Minister, foreshadowed the coming strife when he
declared his intention to popularise the idea of "a nation
in arms/' and the inevitable development of his schemes
for the creation of a territorial army, voluntary at first,
but, as Hardie .declared, likely to become conscriptive
in its working. "There we have," he said, analysing
Haldane's scheme, "a set of proposals which will require
the most careful watching and the most unflinching
opposition from all friends of peace. By force of social
228
THE LABOUR PARTY
pressure or other form of compulsion, the youth of the
nation are to be induced to undergo military training as
volunteers. Thereafter they are to be returned into a
reserve force which is to be available as a supplement
to the regular army when required for service abroad.
At a time when continental nations are growing weary
of conscription and agitating for its abolition, we are
having it introduced into this country under the specious
disguise of broadening the basis of the army. When it
was proposed to tax food, that was described as broaden-
ing the basis of taxation. Now, when an attempt is being
made to popularise universal military service, it is a
similar phrase which is used to conceal the true meaning
of the proposal. In fighting Protection we had the aicL
of the Liberal Party. Now, apparently, it is the same
Party which is to be used to foitet a thinly-disguised
form of conscription upon the nation."
Readers with war-time experience can now judge for
themselves whether this analysis of Haldane's Army
Reform proposals was correct or not. The only differ-
ence between Haldane and Lord Roberts, Hardie
declared, was that "the former, being more of a politician,
carefully avoids the hateful word 'compel/ but evidently
has imbibed Lord Roberts' ideas down to the last dot."
Qie combated strenuously the theory that the best way
o prevent war was to prepare to make war 7] On the
contrary, he held that "the means to do ill deeds makes
ill done," and that a nation in arms was an aggressively
warlike nation, whose very existence made the mainten-
ance of international peace difficult, if not impossible.
This was more especially the case if it were a nation like
Great Britain, Imperialist and Commercialist in its
world policy. "Militarism and all that pertains to it is
inimical to the cause of progress, the well-being of the
people, and the development of the race."
Q 229
J. KEIR HARDIE
This may almost be said to have been the keynote of
his appeal during the remainder of his life, for even then,
to him and to others, there was discernible the cloud no
bigger than a man's hand that was eventually to outspread
and darken the political skies and burst in disruptive
disaster upon the world. To avert this catastrophe the
I.L.P. devoted much of its energy and resources during
the ensuing years, opposing all militarist developments,
whether it was Haldane's Territorial Army scheme, or
the demands for an increase of naval and military arma-
ments, conducting anti-militarist campaigns right up to
the eve of the great tragedy, and hoping always that the
International Socialist movement might so increase in
strength as to be able to preserve the peace of the world.
Doubtless Hardie had this thought uppermost in his
mind during his visit to Brussels the following month as
a member of the International Socialist Bureau to pre-
pare for the next year's Congress at Stuttgart. He had
with him as his colleague on this occasion Mr. H. M.
Hyndman, of whom he said, "a more charming and
agreeable companion no wayfarer ever had," which
causes the reflection that if these two could have been
in close companionship oftener much mutual misunder-
standing might have been avoided.
Meantime, while the hidden hands of diplomacy and
finance were busy in European politics, and while the
Labour Party in Parliament was steadily finding its feet
and becoming a force in the shaping of industrial legisla-
tion, the Women's Suffrage movement was attracting,
not to say distracting, attention in the country. The
past attitude of party leaders and politicians generally,
the I.L.P. always excepted, had been to ignore it loftily,
to assume that it was a manufactured agitation, the pro-
duct of a few enthusiastic cranks, and that there was
really no demand for the vote by any numerous section
230
WOMEN'S AGITATION
of women. The ethics of political equality did not, of
course, trouble these status quo politicians. The
Women's Social and Political Union set itself out to
shatter this serene aloofness, and did so very effectually,
shattering some other things in the process. At a Liberal
demonstration in Manchester the previous year, at which
Mr. Churchill was the chief speaker, a number of suffra-
gists, incensed by the refusal of the platform to answer
their questions, set up such a din that the police were
called in to eject the women, and a kind of miniature riot
took place. Miss Adela Pankhurst and Miss Annie
Kenney, two young but very vigorous ladies, were
arrested, but no prosecution followed. Immediately
after the General Election, a deputation of women sought
an interview with the Prime Minister at his residence
in London, and on being refused admittance created a
disturbance. Three women were arrested on this occa-
sion but were also released without a prosecution. Thus
this phase of the movement began.
Hardie did not identify himself with nor express
approval of these demonstrations, but he did what was
better. Being fortunate in the ballot, he made himself
sponsor for a resolution in Parliament which, if it had
been carried, and of this there was tolerable certainty,
would have advanced the women's cause by several
years. The women had been very active during the
General Election, and had pledged a majority of Mem-
bers of the House of Commons to support their demands.
Hardie's resolution was designed to enable these
gentlemen to redeem their pledges, and thereby secure
a majority vote which would in effect have been a man-
date to the Government. The resolution was as follows :
"That in the opinion of this House it is desirable that
sex should cease to be a bar to the exercise of the Parlia-
mentary Franchise." Hardie, knowing that time was
231
J. KEIR HARDIE
valuable, spoke briefly and persuasively. It was known
that, as usual, an attempt would be made to talk the
resolution out, but precedents were clear, and the
Speaker would no doubt have given the closure. Some
suffragists in the Ladies' Gallery who were not well
acquainted with procedure, seeing the clock fingers
creep round to the closing hour, believed that everything
was undone, and made a demonstration. That ended the
matter and defeated all hope of the closure. The resolu-
tion was talked out, or it might be more accurate to say,
screamed out. Hardie uttered no word of disapproval of
the demonstration, and indeed, to some extent defended
the action of the women, but he would have preferred
that it had not occurred. He believed that it would have
been possible to get the debate closured in time for a
division, in which case the resolution might have been
carried by a substantial majority. Whether or not his
hopes would have been realised can, of course, never
now be determined.
Thus ended the famous "grille scene," the precursor
of many much more violent demonstrations at public
meetings throughout the country, in some of which
Hardie himself was destined to be a sufferer. So
indiscriminate is fanaticism, even in a good cause.
These events happened in his jubilee year. In
response to the suggestion that the occasion should be
signalised by some public manifestation, he character-
istically advised that it should take the form of a
special fund for organisation. Having regard to the
recent heavy demands upon the rank and file for elec-
tion finance, this was not at the moment considered
feasible, though it was not lost sight of, as we shall see.
What was decided upon was a public reception and
presentation. This took place on October 24th in the
Memorial Hall, London, which was crowded to over-
232
JUBILEE
A
flowing with men and women representative of every
phase and section of the Labour and Socialist move-
ment, desirous of celebrating, as one Welshman with a
fine spiritual perception put it, "Keir Hardie's fifty
years on earth." There were telegrams of congratula-
tion from four hundred and forty-nine branches of the
I.L.P. and also from numerous other Socialist and
Trade Union organisations, besides messages of good-
will from many distinguished people outside the
Socialist movement. As showing how completely he
had lived down misunderstanding, for the time, the
message from the Social Democratic Federation may
be quoted. "This Executive Council of the S.D.F.
congratulate Comrade Keir Hardie on the attainment
of his fiftieth birthday, express their admiration of his
independent Parliamentary career and his outspoken
advocacy of Socialist principles as the object of the
working-class movement, and wish him many years of
life in which to carry on his work for the people."
Hardie himself arrived on the scene late, for the
characteristic reason that he had been in Poplar speak-
ing on behalf of the Labour candidates there.
Philip Snowden presided, and Bruce Glasier made
the presentation, which consisted of an inscribed
gold watch with fob and seal, subscribed for by the
N.A.C. and a few intimate friends, and a gold-mounted
umbrella for Mrs. Hardie. Modest gifts, but for that
very reason precious to the recipients. Hardie was very
proud of his gifts for another reason, quite unknown to
the donors. "I've aye wanted to hae a gold watch," he
said naively to the present writer, thus confessing to
an ambition that was very common amongst douce
Scots working men in the days when gold watches were
rare possessions. He did not possess his treasure long,
nor was he able to hand it on as an heirloom. At the by-
233
J. KEIR HARDIR
election in Bermondsey a few years later the watch was
stolen and was never recovered.
Hardie's fiftieth year found him at the height of his
mental powers; clear of vision, resolute of purpose,
practical and tolerant in the Council room, vigilant in
Parliament, persuasive and idealistic on the platform,
and with the never-resting pen of a ready writer. He
stood out at the time, beyond all question, as the greatest
of working-class leaders. His physical appearance also
seemed to reflect his mental and spiritual attributes.
There had grown upon him an unaffected dignity of
bearing, which, with hair and beard greying almost to
whiteness, endued his personality with a kind of vener-
ableness, inducing involuntary respect even from
strangers. He looked much older than fifty years,
except when the light flashed from his eyes in friendly
laughter or in righteous anger. Then he looked much
younger. Always, even to his intimate friends, there
was something mystic, unfathomable, about him. He
was at once aged and youthful, frankly open and
reticently reserved. The explanation may perhaps be
found in some reminiscently. introspective words written
by himself about this time.! "I am," he said, "younger
in spirit at fifty than I ever remember to have been. I
am one of the unfortunate class who have never known
what it was to be a child in spirit I mean. Even the
memories of boyhood and young manhood are gloomy.
Under no circumstances, given freedom of choice,
would I live that part of my life over again. Not until
my life's work found me, stripped me bare of the past
and absorbed me into itself did life take on any real
meaning for me. Now I know the main secret. He
v/ho would find his life must lose it in otters. One
day I may perhaps write a book about this. "..--The book
was never written, more's the pity. It would most cer-
234
SUFFRAGE CONTROVERSY
tainly have been personally reminiscent and biographi-
cal, and the present writer's task would have been
unnecessary.
In December of this year he had a surprise for his
colleagues of the National Council which took the shape
of an offer of ^2,000 which had been placed at his dis-
posal and which he desired should be utilised as an
organising fund on condition that a similar sum be raised
by the Party within a month. The offer was, of course,
accepted and the conditions prescribed complied with,
the result being a great revival of organising and pro-
paganda activity throughout the whole of the I.L.P.
movement. It was disclosed afterwards that the Edin-
burgh ladies already referred to had taken this method
of showing their interest in Hardie's jubilee celebrations.
It may be noted here, and will save any further
reference, that these two ladies continued to assist in
the same practical way during the remainder of their
lives, and in 1913, when Miss Jane Kippen, who had
survived the other sister by some years, died, it was
found that by her will, the whole of her real estate,
approximately 10,000, had been left jointly to Keir
Hardie and John Redmond as trustees for the I.L.P.
and the Irish Nationalist Party respectively.
The Labour Party this was the title now adopted by
the Labour Representation Committee held its annual
Conference in January, 1907, at Belfast. Both at this
Conference, and at the Conference of the I.L.P. at
Derby in April, the Woman's Suffrage question caused
serious trouble, and. in the first case, very nearly created
a breach between Hardie and the organisation which he
had brought into existence. At Belfast, the trouble
arose out of an amendment to a resolution urging "the
immediate extension of the rights of suffrage and of
election of women on the same conditions as men."
235
J. KEIR HARDIE
The amendment, which was carried by 605,000 to
268,000, declared that "any suggested measure to
extend the franchise on a property qualification to a
section only, is a retrograde step and should be opposed. ' '
The carrying of this amendment was tantamount to
an instruction from the conference to the Parliamentary
Labour Party not to proceed with its Franchise Bill
extending the vote to women on the same qualification as
at present ruled for men. Hardie was chairman and
leader of the Parliamentary Party. He was, moreover,
a firm believer in the policy involved in the limited Bill,
a policy which he had supported alike in the House, on
the platform, and in the press, and he was keenly
disappointed with the conference vote, though he was
well aware that the policy of the militant women them-
selves had helped to bring about that result by pre-
judicing the delegates against them.
Only a few days before there had appeared in the
press what purported to be an official statement from the
W.S.P.U. ostentatiously flouting the Labour Party, and
declaring that : "No distinction is made between the
Unionist and the Labour Parties." There was there-
fore some ground for resentment on the part of the
Conference, and this doubtless expressed itself in the
adverse vote. Hardie deplored these manifestations
on the part of the women, which he ascribed "to excess
of zeal," but they did not shake his adherence to the
policy of the immediate political equalisation of the sexes.
"We have to learn to distinguish between a great prin-
ciple and its advocates," he said, and the adverse vote
of the Conference came to him as a kind of challenge
which he felt bound to meet at once, and before the
Conference closed. In the course of moving a vote of
thanks to the Belfast Trades Council and the press, he
asked leave to make a statement on the matter. The
236
SUFFRAGE CONTROVERSY
statement will bear recording here, alike for its historical
and its biographical interest. It is contributory to our
general estimate of the character of the man who
made it.
"Twenty-five years ago this year," he said, "I cut
myself adrift from every relationship, political and
otherwise, in order to assist in building up a working-
class party. I had thought the days of my pioneering
were over. Of late, I have felt with increasing intensity
the injustices that have been inflicted on women by the
present political laws. The intimation I wish to make
to the Conference and friends is that, if the motion they
carried this morning was intended to limit the action of
the Party in the House of Commons, I shall have to
seriously consider whether I shall remain a member of
the Parliamentary Party. I say this with great respect
and feeling. The party is largely my own child, and
I could not sever myself lightly from what has been my
life-work. But I cannot be untrue to my principles,
and I would have to be so, were I not to do my utmost
to remove the stigma upon the women, mothers and
sisters, of being accounted unfit for political citizenship."
This statement, which was quite unexpected, created
something like consternation among the delegates, and
for the first time in its history, the Labour Party Con-
ference ended in a note of depression.
Though there was much resentment against Hardie
within the Labour Party for the line he had taken, which
showed itself when he stood again for the chair, and
the opposition continued to smoulder, needless to say,
the separation did not take place. The decision of the
Conference, of course, could not be set aside. What
was decided upon, mainly on the suggestion of Arthur
Henderson, was that individual members of the Party
were left free to support a Woman's Franchise Bill
237
J. KEIR HARDIE
should it be introduced. As a matter of fact, such a
measure was introduced during the session by Mr.
Dickinson, a Liberal member, and supported in a
speech by Hardie, and by the votes of most of the
Labour Members.
The trouble at the I.L.P. Conference arose in a
different way, though it was essentially the same trouble.
Unlike the Labour Party, the I.L.P. was nearly
unanimous in its support of the limited Bill, but when
in addition to that support, the Standing Orders Commit-
tee accepted an emergency resolution, congratulating
the suffragists in prison, there was a strong protest
against distinguishing preferentially these women from
the others who were working loyally for the general
objects of the Party. Amongst the most emphatic of
the protesters were Margaret MacDonald, the wife of
the chairman, and J. Bruce Glasier, whose remarks
illustrate vividly the intensity of feeling that was being
evoked within the Party by the tactics of the W.S.P.U.
"This telegram," he declared, "virtually committed the
Party to the policy of the Women's Political Union. It
expresses warm sympathy with a special kind of martyr-
dom. He wished, like Mrs. MacDonald, to express
sympathy with and stand up for our own women who
had stuck faithfully to the Party. He was all for the
women's cause, but not for the Women's Political
Union." Hardie, who was mainly responsible for the
idea of sending the telegram, and also for its wording,
appealed for a unanimous vote, on the ground that as
a large proportion of the women who were coming out of
prison that week were members of the Party, it would
be a graceful act to send the telegram, and that it "should
go forth wholeheartedly, without expressing an opinion
on the question of tactics, that we have an appreciation
for those who have the courage to go to prison in sup-
238
SUFFRAGE CONTROVERSY
port of what they believe to be right." Notwithstanding
this appeal, the motion to refer the telegram back to
the Standing Orders Committee was only defeated by
eight votes, there being 188 in its favour and 180 against,
a striking indication of how evenly the Conference was
divided on the matter. Even m the subsequent vote
as to whether the telegram should be sent, there were
60 against it. The message was sent, but certainly
not wholeheartedly.
The position must be made clear. The I.L.P. was
in favour of Women's Suffrage. It had always been.
It was in favour also of the W.S.P.U. method of obtain-
ing the vote, namely, by equalising the franchise for the
sexes, whatever the basis of qualification might be. But
it was not inclmed to subordinate every other social
question to the advancement of the women's movement,
nor to allow itself to be committed to methods of agita-
tion upon which it had never been consulted, nor, in
electioneering matters, to be placed in the same category
with other political parties who had always opposed the
women's claim.
Hardie evidently did not think these dangers were
involved in the sending of the sympathetic telegram;
or perhaps he thought the Party was big enough to take
the risk. The fact that in this matter he was at variance
with Glasier and MacDonald and some of the other
leaders was very disquieting to many of the members
of the Party and a source of satisfaction to its enemies.
Evidently the "Woman Question" had disintegrating
potentialities, which, if these leaders had been small-
minded men, might have worked very great mischief to
the movement. To all concerned it brought a good deal
of pain, accentuated in Hardie's case by the fact that
he was conscious of the symptoms of a recurrence of
that physical trouble from which, since the operation,
239
J. KEIR HARDIE
he had never been wholly free, and which a month later
resulted in his serious breakdown.
Amidst all these activities Hardie had found time to
write a book for the "Labour Ideal Series" projected by
George Allen, and published about this time. The title
of the book, "From Serfdom to Socialism," indicates
its subject and scope. Despite the author's depreciatory
foreword, it is one of the most compact and vivid state-
ments of the case for Socialism that has ever been
written, comprising in some four thousand words a
survey alike of the philosophic and the economic
developments towards the Socialist State, not as a
finality but as the natural and necessary environment
for a future Communist society. "Mankind when left
free has always and in all parts of the world naturally
turned to Communism. That it will do so again is the
most likely forecast that can be made, and the great
industrial organisations, the Co-operative movement,
the Socialist organisations and the Labour Party are
each and all developing the feeling of solidarity and of
mutual aid which will make the inauguration of Com-
munism a comparatively easy task as the natural
successor to State Socialism."
The charm of the book lies in its lucidity and in the
complete avoidance of that technical and turgid termin-
ology which looks scientific, but, for the ordinary reader,
is only befogging; and it was for the ordinary reader
that the book was written.
A short extract from the chapter on "Socialism" will
give some idea of its arguments and method. "The
State is what the people make it. Its institutions are
necessarily shaped to further and protect the interests
of the dominant influence. Whilst a landed nobility
reigned supreme, the interests of that class were the one
concern of the State. Subsequently with the growth of
240
SOCIALISM
the commercial and trading class, which, when it became
strong enough, insisted on sharing the power of the
State with the landed aristocracy, many of the old laws
passed by the landlords in restraint of trade were modi-
fied. Now that the working class is the dominant power,
politically at least, it logically and inevitably follows
that that class will also endeavour so to influence the
State as to make it protect its interests. As the political
education of the workers progresses, and they begin
to realise what are the true functions of the State, this
power will be exerted i'n an increasing degree in the
direction of transforming the State from a property-
preserving to a life-preserving institution. The funda-
mental fact which the working class is beginning to
recognise is that property, or at least its possession,
is power. This is an axiom which admits of no contra-
diction. I So long as property, using the term to mean
land ancf capital, is in the hands of a small class, the
rest of the people are necessarily dependent upon that
class. A democracy, therefore, has no option but to
seek to transform those forms of property, together with
the power inherent in them, from private to public
possession. Opinions may differ as to the methods to
be pursued in bringing about that change, but concern-
ing its necessity there are no two opinions in the
working-class movement. When land and capital are
the common property of all the people, class distinctions,
as we know them, will disappear. The mind will then
be the standard by which a r man's place among his
fellows will be determined. '^J
The book had a wide circulation. It was essentially
a propagandist document and ought again to be utilised
for that purpose.
A reference made by Hardie at this time to the Irish
question should be here noted. It is not inappropriate
241
J. KEIR HARDIE
to the present situation. It was made in answer to a
statement by the Rev. R. J. Campbell, who was at this
period making approaches to Labour, and who, in an
article on "The Labour Movement and Religion/' had
declared that, as an Ulsterman by origin, he had "an
objection to handing the whole of Ireland over to the
Roman Catholic majority without proper safeguards."
"I often wonder," wrote Hardie, "why it is that Ulster-
men oppose Home Rule for the land of their birth. If
there is one fact in the future more certain than another,
it is that in an Irish Parliament Ulstermen would wield
influence greater than any of them have ever dreamed of
hitherto. They are at present cut off from their fellow
Irishmen because they hold themselves as a sect apart,
and are, in consequence, powerless to influence their
country's development. One session in the House of
Commons would cure Mr. Campbell of the last rem-
nants of the old prejudice against his fellow-countrymen
which he probably drank in with his mother's milk
and which still clings to him." Hardie's diagnosis of
the individual Ulsterman's prejudice was probably
correct, though his proposed cure had no guarantee in
actual fact. There are Ulstermen who have passed
many sessions in the House of Commons, and have
become all the more bigoted. It is to be feared that the
Ulsterman does not want to be cured of his prejudice
and shrinks from the Home Rule experiment for that
very reason.
Mr. Campbell shortly afterwards affirmed his belief
in Socialism and joined the I.L.P. mainly as the result
of discussions with Hardie. After a few years, how-
ever, he slipped out, and has not been heard of politi-
cally since.
In February of this year, Hardie had the experience
of being "ragged" at Cambridge, whither he had gone
242
THE LABOUR PARTY
to address a meeting at the invitation of student and
working-class Socialists. He went through the ordeal
without coming to any harm, thanks to well-organised
protection on the part of the local sympathisers, who
took the brunt of the physical abuse meant for the
plebeian agitator. A contemporary press comment may
be quoted, especially as it supplies contrasting pictures
of Hardie's experience as a propagandist and social
worker.
"On Saturday night last, Keir Hardie was hooted
and mobbed by the students at Cambridge University.
There is much varied experience crammed into the
working day of the Socialist agitator. At one o'clock
in the morning of the same day Keir Hardie was present
at quite a different function from the Cambridge one.
He was with a few companions on the Thames Embank-
ment, a looker-on at the dispensing of charity to some
of London's destitute waifs by the Salvation Army
officials. I know not what other experience filled in Mr.
Hardie's day between the Thames Embankment and
Cambridge University, but in the beginning and ending
of it there was surely contrast enough. The bottom dog
at the one end and the top-cur at the other; poverty
and ignorance on the Embankment; riches and ignor-
ance at Cambridge. The results of our social system
epitomised in two scenes." And for both, there was
deep sympathy in the heart of Keir Hardie.
Up to the moment of his breakdown in health he
was engrossed in work, and in the very week in which
he was compelled to give up, he submitted a report on
Mr. Haldane's Army Bill which he had prepared at the
request of the Parliamentary Labour Party. There
was never anything slipshod or superficial about
Hardie's methods, and his analysis of the Army Bill
was exceedingly searching and thorough. Upon the
243
J. KEIR HARDIE
basis of that analysis he recommended that the Bill
should be opposed, root and branch, for the following
amongst other reasons :
"(a) Because it introduces militarism in our public
schools amongst boys at their most impressionable age
and ere they have arrived at years of discretion.
"(b) Because the method by which officers are to be
secured bars out the working class and creates an army
of workers officered by rich men.
"(c) Because it introduces the military element into
industrial and civil relationships in a way hitherto
unknown.
"(d) Because we are not convinced of the need for
turning Britain into an armed camp.
"Employers and workmen," said the report, "will
alike be inconvenienced by the provisions of the Bill,
and in the end it will almost certainly lead to compulsory
military service."
On the lines indicated by this report, the Labour
Party, led mainly by MacDonald and Snowden, fought
the Bill, clause by clause, unsuccessfully of course, the
Tory Party being just as militarist as the Liberal
Government. Hardie himself, to his deep regret, was
unable to take part in a fight into which he would have
thrown every atom of his energy. He had already,
during the debate on the Army Estimates, in a search-
ing and lofty-toned speech, denounced the measure as
"repugnant to all that is best in the moral and civil
traditions of the nation." The passing of the Bill is a
matter of history, as is also the continued preparation
for Armageddon on the part of the rival nations.
That same week, Hardie was laid prostrate and had
to be removed to a nursing home for examination. He
was loath to believe that the attack was of a kind that
244
ILLNESS
would necessitate anything more than reorganisation
of his work.
"One thing is certain," he wrote to his friend Glasier,
"I won't be able to do any speaking this side of Whit
week. The doctors here have been most kind. There
were three of them called in for consultation the day I
was brought down, and all three have since visited me
in their human rather than their professional capacity.
I don't know whether they have been talking amongst
themselves, but at least they have all harped upon the
one thing that another attack, which they say may
occur at any moment, would be a very serious thing,
necessitating an operation. They say that by taking
things easy and, by observing ordinary gumption in the
matter of food, rest, and the like, I may not only go
on all right for years, but the trouble may heal up."
Taking things easy was the one thing this man could
not do, but on this occasion he had no alternative
but to go for a very complete rest, and, somewhat
reluctantly, he bowed to the inevitable.
Writing in the train on the way home to Cumnock,
he said, "I begin to fear that the process of restoration
is likely to be somewhat slow. One part of the internal
economy has broken down. I have no desire for food,
nor will anything solid lie; whilst even liquids cause a
good deal of uneasiness. But I now know this, and
have resolved accordingly, and my friends may rely
upon it, that I shall be docile and tractable. For the
moment there is to be no operation. Nature and more
gentle and soothing measures are to have their chance
first."
He had got to the point of making good resolutions
for the future, and, recalling Liebknecht's reflections on
the effect which night work and overwork had upon the
naturally strong constitution of Karl Marx, he said, "I
R 245
J. KEIR BARDIE
shall try to remember it after I am well, but there is
so much to .do, and so few to do it. I pray that the end
may be sudden when it comes, a lingering illness must
be dreadful.' 5 Thus chafingly 'did he submit to the
ordeal of rest.
Several weeks' treatment at the Wemyss Bay Hydro-
pathic brought him relief from pain but did not restore
him to vigour, and it became apparent that his complete
recovery would be long delayed. "The doctors tell me
that to return to active work now means in all likelihood
another collapse at an early date. But I cannot remain
idle, nor, I feel certain, could I school myself into taking
it easy at work. I have never done so. I can idle when
idling, but I cannot work like an automaton. It was
the same in the pits and in the quarries in my earlier
days. I don't like the prospect of another experience
like the last few weeks, and I know that the doctors are
right. A sick dispirited man is not only of no use in the
front rank of our movement he is apt to be a nuisance
to himself and others. Courage, initiative, energy,
hope, are all needed, and these the ailing have not got,
and cannot give." An unusually despondent mood this,
for him, and one that was the surest proof that he was
really very ill. And so, gradually, it was borne in upon
him that he must accept the advice given by the doctors
and by many friends, and go for a long sea voyage.
"I came here," he wrote again from Wemyss Bay,
"to try and get well, and settled down to the task as I
would to the fighting of a by-election. Six and seven
times a day I have dressed and undressed to undergo
treatment of one kind and another. To leave the job
unfinished would, I feel, be neither fair to myself nor to
those who look to me for guidance. The sea voyage
idea is not quite settled, but I give it thought as it has
begun to shape itself in my mind."
246
ROUND THE WORLD
When at last the sea voyage was determined upon,
the first proposal was for a visit to the Australian
Colonies via Canada, but finally a voyage round the
world was arranged, and as this, of course, included
India, that fact altered, as we shall see, the whole
complexion of the enterprise. He was the more easily
reconciled to the prospect of a long absence from home
by the knowledge that he was leaving the movement
healthier than it had ever been, both in Parliament and
in the country. His friend, Pete Curran, had just won
a signal by-election victory at Jarrow, and Victor Gray-
son was starting out to contest Colne Valley with high
hopes of success. In the House, the Labour Party was
holding steadfastly together, and its leading men earn-
ing distinction alike as practical legislators and as
opponents and critics of the Government. It should be
noted here that MacDonald was at this time vigorously
besetting the Government with demands for informa-
tion regarding the nature of the agreements being
entered into with Russia, which, if it had been given
and so made public, might have changed the whole
course of future diplomacy. It was certainly through
no lack of vigilance on the part of the Labour Party that
the nation became involved in international entangle-
ments from which it could not get free without going to
war, and which created war conditions in the whole of
Europe.
Before sailing, Hardie wrote one article on the
political situation, in which he scathingly indicted the
Government for shelving all its social legislation to
make room for Haldane's Territorial Army Bill.
"Everything else had to stand aside for this conscription -
made-easy proposal/' rendered all the more ominous
by the fact that the Government "was making treaties
and bargains with Russia, whilst the hands and garments
247
J. KEIR HARDIE
of its rulers drip with the blood of the victims who are
daily being done to death for demanding for the
Russian people a say in the government of their
country/'
He sailed from Liverpool on July I2th, having first
to undergo the ordeal of big send-off demonstrations in
Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool. In an "Au
Revoir'' message to the "Leader/' he outlined his pro-
spective journeyings as follows : "In Canada and South
Africa, Australia and New Zealand I hope to meet
again friends of the long ago, and to learn how our
movement progresses. Japan and China will be touched
in passing, that, and little more. We want all the
cohesion possible in our great world-wide movement,
and even a handshake in passing may not be without its
value in bringing the forces of Labour in closer touch.
India was an afterthought. At present a lying press
campaign is being waged to bias the people of this
country against the nations of that far-off land and to
make it difficult for the Government to do anything to
break down the official caste under which we hold them
in the bondage of subjection. By seeing and hearing
on the spot what the actual facts are, I may, on my
return, be able to let in a little light upon the dark
places of Indian government."
The "afterthought" had thus become the main object
of his journey, and the friends at home, who could not
see much rest for him in such an enterprise, had to con-
sole themselves with the knowledge that he would
perforce have to spend at least fifteen weeks at sea.
Throughout Canada he was received with great
cordiality and he sent home interesting but none
too optimistic impressions of the social conditions pre-
vailing in the Dominion and of the state' of Labour and
Socialist organisation. Here, as everywhere during his
248
INDIA
tour, in conference with Trade Union and Socialist
leaders, he broached the idea of a world-wide Labour
Federation, as a practical and effective supplement to
the Socialist International, not with any hope of its
materialising quickly, but simply by way of sowing seed
that might bring forth fruit in the future. He derived
much benefit in health from his brief sojourn in Canada
and did not meet with any hostility of any kind.
From the moment, however, of his arrival in India
it became evident that those interests to which it was
not suitable that "light should be let in upon dark
places'* had made preparations to prejudice him as a
witness for the truth in the eyes of the British people.
The fact that there was grave discontent among large
sections of the people of India, arising out of the recent
partition of Bengal, made it easy for the people at home
to accept as true the luridly coloured pictures of Keir
Hardie as a fomenter of that discontent. By the end
of September, sensational reports, telegraphed through
Reuter, of his sayings and doings in India began to
reach this country, and were given great prominence
and wide circulation in the press.
jTie was described as going about influencing the
minds of the Bengalis, fomenting sedition, and under-
mining British rule. He was reported to have said that
"the condition of Bengal was worse than that of Russia/'
and that "the atrocities committed by officials would,
if they were known, evoke more horror in England than
the Turkish outrages in Armenia." l"Whereupon/ 3 said
a friendly commentator, "the Yellow Press was seized
with a violent eruption. It vomited forth volumes of
smoke and flame and mud, and roared at Keir Hardie
like a thousand bellowing Bulls of Bashan, and even
journals less tainted with insanity felt extremely shocked
and took upon themselves to administer censure upon
249
J. KEIR HARDIE
the author of this 'scandalous utterance." Even
"Punch" joined in the vituperation with a cartoon by
Mr. Linley Sambourne, which showed Britannia gripping
the agitator by the scruff of the neck and apostrophising
him : "Here, you'd better come home. We know all
about you here you'll do less harm." At the time that
this disgraceful attack was being made, the Indian
authorities were writing home appreciative accounts
of his doings. } For a full fortnight Hardie was
-' the most violently detested man throughout the
English-speaking world, for, of course, this mighty
noise had its reverberations in every corner of the
Empire, and also in America, j Knowing full well
that his colleagues at home woulcl have some difficulty
in withstanding the storm of misrepresentation, he sent
a cablegram to the "Daily Mail" giving a brief review
of the economic conditions and political situation in
Bengal, and concluding with the following significant
caution : "People at home should be careful of trusting
reports, especially of Renter's agents. The grossly dis-
torted home reports are publicly censured by the leading
Calcutta journals. Amusement here this morning at
the cabled comments of the 'Daily Mail,' 'Times' and
'Standard' in their leading columns. They have been
misled by Reuter. J. Keir Hardie."
In reply to a "Daily Mail" inquiry whether he had
really made this specific statement attributed to him, he
replied :
"Calcutta, Thursday, October 3rd.
"The statements are fabrications. I said that the
prohibitions of meetings, etc., reminded me of Russia,
and the violation of Hindu women by Mohammedan
rowdies reminded me of Armenia, and that Colonial
Government was the ultimate goal. Keir Hardie."
And yet, on the very same day on which he cabled
250
INDIA
his repudiation of the statement attributed to him,
Reuter's Calcutta correspondent sent a cable to the
British press in which he stated that "Mr. Keir Hardie,
M.P., admitted in an interview that the statements
attributed to him were not exaggerated." Thus lie
followed lie in a kind of cuttlefish endeavour to obscure
the truth, the real purpose of the detractors being to
discredit the very serious statements which Hardie
actually did make concerning the state of matters in
India.
Hardie's own exposure of these misrepresentations
was quickly followed by that of the Indian press, which
unanimously testified to the correctness of his bearing.
"None of the papers here, either English or native,"
said a Central News message, "has taken much exception
to his conduct, which is thought to have been, on the
whole, quite proper and discreet, as becoming the
honoured guest of the Maharajah of Mymensingh, one
of the signatories of the loyal Manifesto, and of several
prominent officials."
Most satisfactory was the attitude of his colleagues at
home in the face of all the obloquy and abuse. The
"Labour Leader," speaking for the I.L.P., declared
that "the Party would stand solidly with him in con-
veying to the Indian people the strongest expression of
the sympathy and support of British Socialists in their
struggle against social and political oppression."
Robert Blatchford, in the "Clarion," appealed to the
British press for fair play. Mr. Cunninghame Graham's
utterance was characteristic and at the same time repre-
sentative of general Socialist opinion in the country.
Declaring that he honoured and respected Keir Hardie
for all he had endeavoured to do in Calcutta and British
India, he said, "There were many millions of popula-
tion in the country, the discreetest millions of the dis-
251
J. KEIR HARDIE
creetest population the world had ever known, but there
were few Keir Hardies there were few men who, like
Keir Hardie, had risen from the depths of poverty to
such a position as he now occupied." Our position in
India was but for a time, and he held that the utter-
ances of Keir Hardie would do much to prepare the
minds of the native Indians, and cause them to think
of the benefits of free institutions. Instead of deporting
Keir Hardie from India, he thought "they ought to send
an ironclad to bring him home as the first man who had
broken through prejudice, and given the right hand of
fellowship to their down-trodden brethren."
These words undoubtedly reflected the views of the
Socialist movement, and also of many people outside
of it.
The attacks on Hardie, on this as on so many previous
occasions, had exactly the opposite effect from what was
intended, and he emerged from the tempest holding a
higher place than ever in the estimation of the thought-
ful sections of the community, while he had the
satisfaction of knowing that public attention had been
focussed on the question of the government of India as
it had never been since the days of the Mutiny. Com-
placent and self-satisfied British citizens who had only
heard vaguely of the partition of Bengal, and had no
idea at all of what it implied, began to realise that all
was not well in our manner of governing what the news-
papers called the "Indian Empire."
Happily, it is not necessary to overload this memoir
with a detailed account of Hardie's progress through
India. That is to be found in his book "India : Impres-
sions and Suggestions," first published in 1909; a
second edition, issued in 1917 by the Home Rule for
India League with a valuable foreword by Philip
Snowden, is now available.
252
INDIA
He spent two months in India, and visited Bengal,
Northern India, and two of the native States Baroda
and Mysore. He mingled with all classes Anglo-
Indian officials, native princes, rulers and magistrates,
peasants and factory workers, Mohammedans and
Hindus ; with all on terms of equality that being pro-
bably his greatest offence in the eyes of certain sections
of the Anglo- Indians who regard the maintenance of
the "colour line" as a necessary bulwark of British
supremacy. Hardie, naturally, could not recognise any
social or race barriers, and held steadfastly to his
intention, publicly declared before leaving Britain, that
he "would know no colour, race or creed." As a matter
of fact, he knew them all, but made no distinction
between any of them, and thereby won the esteem and
confidence of all classes in India, and was enabled to
see the inner life of the people as no previous visitor
had been allowed to see it. In this respect, as in many
others during the course of his life, he was a pioneer.
The breach which he made in the wall of prejudice has
never been quite closed, and through it there has passed
much goodwill from the common people of Britain to
the common people of India.
By this time Hardie was beginning to be somewhat
homesick and longing to be in the thick of the political
fray at Westminster. The visit to Ceylon was interesting
but uneventful, and at Colombo he debated with him-
self whether it would not be better after all to leave
out Australia and South Africa, and "make a bee-line
for the Lugar, via the Red Sea." "The fact is," he
wrote, "the trip is too long, and I see the new session
opening and me still on the water, and I like not that."
His health had evidently considerably improved, and
with restored strength came renewed confidence in him-
self, and he was yearning to be free to face his critics.
253
J. KEIR HARDIE
His experiences in the Australian colonies were, in
the nature of things, in strong contrast with his experi-
ences in India. He was amongst a free people, in the
one part of the world where genuine experiment was
being made in the principles and practice of self-
government, and he was naturally intent on studying
as far as his short tour would allow the various phases
and aspects of that experiment. But he made no claim
that the notes which he sent home should be regarded
as anything more than the personal impressions of a
keenly interested wayfarer. He was well received
everywhere, in West and South Australia, in Victoria,
and New Zealand, and New South Wales, and regretted
very much that he had to leave out Queensland and
Tasmania. He had to speak at numerous public recep-
tions organised in his honour. One or two attempts to
raise prejudice against him, based upon the press
reports of his Indian tour, melted away immediately on
personal contact with him. He visited the gold fields
at Koolgardie and Bendigo, the lead and copper mines
at Broken Hill, and, of course, the coal mines at New-
castle at all these places talking, as was his wont, as
a miner to his fellow craftsmen. He renewed his friend-
ship with Andrew Fisher, his early associate in the
formation of the Ayrshire Miners' Union, then and now
one of Australia's leading statesmen, and still true to his
democratic upbringing. He met scores of old friends
wherever he went, Scottish and Welsh friends especially
claiming kinship and clanship. He spent many social
hours with them cracking about old times in the old
country and singing the old songs, and generally giving
free scope to those social instincts which were always
strong within him. At Adelaide he even went so far as
to allow himself to be impressed into playing in a cricket
match Press and Parliament and he records with a
254
AUSTRALASIA
kind of boyish glee : "I carried off my bat for eight runs,
one hit counting for four." Probably bowlers and
fielders were kind to him. He enjoyed himself
thoroughly, and from the health point of view the Aus-
tralian visit was undoubtedly the most beneficial part
of the world tour. Yet it came near making an end of
his career. While on a short motor trip out from Wel-
lington, New Zealand, the car in which he was travelling-
went over an embankment, throwing him some fifteen
or sixteen feet down towards a stream at the bottom.
He was only saved from a complete descent by contact
with trees and shrubbery. No bones were broken, but
he was badly shaken and had to rest for several days.
Describing the occurrence in a letter home, he said :
"The accident has quite upset my New Zealand tour so
far as the South Island is concerned, but bad as this is,
it might easily have been worse. Doubtless there are
those who would account for it by quoting the old saw,
'Deil's bairns hae their deddie's luck/ If there be
such, I am not the one to gainsay them."
From his summing up of his Australian experiences
one passage may be quoted, especially as it seems to
show some modification of his attitude towards the
Citizen Army idea, a modification, however, which ife
overborne by his main argument. Referring to the
fixed policy of a "White Australia," in defence of which
he recognised that the Australasian "would fight as for
no other ideal," and to the proposals arising out of that
for an Australian navy and compulsory military ser-
vice, he wrote : "Now, I who hate militarism and every-
thing it stands for, readily admit that the conditions of
the Australian continent are different from those of
Great Britain. Further, if the choice is between an
armed nation and a professional army, my preference is
for the former. But in this, as in all else, everything
255
J. KEIR HARDIE
depends upon who is to control the army. With Labour
controlling the Parliament and owning the press, the
danger of playing with arms would be reduced to a
minimum. If, on the other hand, the professional sol-
dier and the Imperialist politician are to run the show,
the danger is too great to be taken on. Were I in
Australian politics at this moment, I would resist to the
end every proposal for giving militarism the least foot-
hold in the Commonwealth. The Japanese bogey,
when it is not a fraud, is the concoction of a frenzied
brain, destitute of all knowledge of European politics.
Great Britain is the last country on the map of the
world with which the Japanese will care to embroil
themselves. The experiment of keeping Australia white
is a great one, the success of which time alone can
decide." _
I^From Australia to South Africa was like passing
from a friendly into a hostile country. He had to run
the gauntlet of an opposition carefully and vindictively
organised by the gold and diamond mining interests
whose influence largely dominated the public life and
controlled the press of the South African colonies.
Hardie was their declared enemy and the avowed friend
of the Boers and of the natives. He had championed
the Boer Republic all through the war. He had opposed
bitterly, and not ineffectively, the introduction of
Chinese labour. He had advocated the claims of the
natives for fair treatment, and his impassioned protests
against the Natal massacres were on record in the pages
of "Hansard" and in the columns of the "Labour
Leader"; and, greatest sin of all, he was the living
symbol of organised Labour, now beginning to assert
itself in South Africa as elsewhere. The opposition
manifested itself in calculated and unbridled rowdyism,
unchecked by the authorities, except at Johannesburg,
256
SOUTH AFRICA
where murder was feared. At Ladysmith, the win-
dows of the hotel in which he stayed were smashed by
the paid rowdies, "no one, not even the hotel-keeper,
trying to restrain them." At Johannesburg a gang had
been organised, and a detachment was sent to Pretoria,
where the crowd, after the meeting, was the most
turbulent of any, and smashed the carriage in which he
drove back to the hotel with stones and other missiles.
At Durban, there were similar disturbances. Yet at
all these places he managed to address public meetings
organised by the local Trades Councils and the
Socialists, bodyguards capable of protecting him, at
considerable risk to themselves, from actual violence
to his person being provided from amongst his friends.
Through it all he moved unperturbed, and did not
allow the rough treatment he had received to colour his
impressions. Thus, for example, at Johannesburg, he
describes a two thousand feet mine which he visited as
being well ventilated and the timbering the finest he
had seen anywhere. He noted that the compounds,
especially the newer parts, were clean and comfortable,
and that the Chinamen were living under much better
sanitary conditions than they enjoyed at home. At the
same time he points out that "there are empty houses,
and unemployed workmen, and much woe and want in
the Rand," and that, "nevertheless, the mines pay
7,000,000 a year in dividends. 55
He deplored the prevalence of the opinion, as much
amongst working people as amongst other classes, that'X
"South Africa should be made a white man's country
and the nigger kept in his proper place," and he pointed
out that the white man, by refusing to work and by get-
ting the Kaffir to work for him under his supervision,
was tacitly admitting that South Africa was not, and
never could be, a white man's country. The native
257
J. KEIR HARDIE
question he regarded as South Africa's greatest pro-
blem, but made no attempt to dogmatise as to its
solution. He was impressed by the shrewdness and
intelligence of the South African native, who, he pre-
dicted, "would put up a fight against the farmer who
wants his land, and the miner who wants his labour at
starvation wage." Hardie urged that the Labour move-
ment at home and in South Africa should combine to
save the South African natives from being reduced to
the position of "a landless proletariat at the mercy of
their exploiters for all time.''
His somewhat pessimistic conclusions regarding the
South African outlook were, if anything, reinforced by a
day spent in the company of Olive Schreiner, with whom
he had been on terms of friendship since before the war,
and whose mind was filled with dark forebodings for
the future of her country. He was not sorry to shake
the South African dust from his feet and turn his face
homewards.
The tour, which for many reasons attracted as much
public interest as if he had been a royal personage, had
at least fulfilled its primary purpose. When he arrived
in Plymouth in the last week of March, he appeared to
be in splendid health. "I have never seen him looking
so well, though his grey hair has whitened a little," said
Glasier, who was amongst the welcoming party. "He
presented a most picturesque figure, as he stood, erect
as ever, sunburnt and aglow, in his tweed suit, his gray
Tam-o'-Shanter, and with his Indian shawl slung round
his shoulder, he struck one as a curious blend between,
a Scottish shepherd and an Indian rajah. He avows
that he has stuck to his Scotch porridge for breakfast
six days a week with a 'tea breakfast' on Sundays."
Among the first news he received on landing was that
the Socialist students of Glasgow University had
258
HOME
nominated him for the Lord Rectorship, thus making
him involuntarily the central figure in quite a new sphere
of Socialist propaganda. The election, which created
widespread interest, took place in the following October,
after an unusually exciting fight. Hardie himself, in
accordance with traditional etiquette in such contests,
took no part. The nomination speech was made by
H. M. Hyndman, and other speakers who addressed
the students on behalf of Hardie's candidature were
Cunninghame Graham, Herbert Burrows, Mrs. Cobden
Sanderson, Victor Grayson and the Rev. Stitt Wilson, of
America, while messages in support were sent by Dr.
Alfred Russel Wallace, George Bernard Shaw, H. G.
Wells, the Rev. R. J. Campbell, and others well known
in the world of literature and politics. The leading
spirit in this unique campaign was Thomas Johnston, a
former student at the University, founder and editor of
"Forward," and now well known as the author of the
authoritative "History of the Working Classes of
Scotland." The voting figures were as follows :
Lord Curzon ... ... 947
Lloyd George ... ... 935
Keir Hardie 122
Twenty-two of Hardie's votes were from women students.
The narrow defeat of Lloyd George caused much
chagrin amongst Liberals.
259
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FOREIGN POLICY THE KING ? S GARDEN PARTY ATTACKS
FROM WITHIN AND WITHOUT
ALMOST immediately on his arrival, Hardie
found himself deeply immersed in work, and
seemed bent on squandering somewhat freely the
energy he had gained during his travels.
The period, indeed, is so crowded with events in
which he was involved that it is well-nigh impossible to
present a sequential account of his sayings and doings.
There was the usual round of welcoming demonstrations
which were calculated not only to show the esteem in
which he was held by the Labour movement, but also
to act as a stimulus to that movement. The meeting in
the Albert Hall. London, was remarkable for size and
enthusiasm, and the recipient of so much adulation
might have been pardoned if he had succumbed, if only
temporarily, to the disease known as "swelled head" a
failing not unknown amongst popular politicians.
Hardie was not without his share of self-esteem, but he
never allowed it to magnify into a grotesque proportion
his place in the movement. These demonstrations
he accepted as his due, but he valued them chiefly as
Labour's answer to the misrepresentations and abuse
that had been so lavishly showered upon him. If his
own people believed in him, he cared not who was
against him.
He had also to make a tour of his constituency, where
his reception was such as to assure him that the attacks
260
FOREIGN POLICY
made upon him had not weakened, but had rather
strengthened, the fidelity of his supporters. South
Wales had now become a kind of second home to him,
where he was as much at his ease, and had friendships
as intimate, as in Ayrshire or Glasgow.
Following quickly upon these platform appearances
came the I.L.P. Conference at Huddersfield, at which
there were some signs of division over the Party's
connection with the Labour Party. The trouble centred
round Victor Grayson, who had been elected for the
SColne Valley division in the previous year, under con-
ditions which did not strictly conform to Labour Party
rules, and which had prevented his official endorsement
either by the N.A.C. or by the Labour Party Executive.
The former body, however, made itself responsible for
paying him his share of the Parliamentary Maintenance
Fund, from which the I.L.P. helped its Parliamentary
representatives. The Conference sustained the N.A.C.
attitude by a large majority. Thereafter, a resolution
to which Grayson agreed was passed, declaring that
"during the remainder of Parliament his relations to the
Labour Party should be the same as that of all the other
I.L.P. members, except in the case of his being placed
upon the Parliamentary Fund." This dispute, through-
out which Hardie played the part of peacemaker, seems
in perspective somewhat trivial, but at the time it looked
to be very serious, and there were not wanting those
who hoped to see it result either in the break up of the
I.L.P. or in its severance from the Labour Party.
This Conference, however, was chiefly remarkable for
its pronouncements on foreign affairs, and especially
upon the agreement with the Russian Government,
which it declared was equivalent to "giving an informal
sanction to the course of infamous tyranny which has
suppressed every semblance of representation and has
s 261
J. KEIR HARDIE
condemned great numbers of our Russian comrades to
imprisonment, torture and death." A resolution was
also passed protesting against the "shameless exploita-
tion of the Congo by the Government of King Leopold,
and calling upon the British Government to take such
action as may compel a more humane treatment of the
natives of the Congo." This was followed by a resolu-
tion, moved by Hardie and seconded by Joseph Burgess,
demanding "that the people of India should be given
more effective control over their own affairs." In the
course of his speech, Hardie cited the native States of
Baroda, Mysore and Travancore as proof of the fitness
of the Indian people for self-government. In one or
other of these States, he affirmed, he had found parish
councils established, he had found the caste system dis-
appearing, and he had found compulsory free education,
and in one of them there was a popularly elected Annual
Parliament meeting and discussing national affairs.
"The whole of the administration, from the humblest
office right up to the chief, was filled by natives and the
administration of the affairs of those States was a model
to the rest of India." In face of the momentous issues
raised by these resolutions, the Grayson incident
dwindled into insignificance, and the somewhat ran-
corous feelings which it had evoked melted away in the
general recognition of the great purposes for which the
I.L.P. existed.
Three keenly contested by-elections occurring almost
simultaneously, at Dewsbury, Dundee and Montrose
Burghs, in all of which the Labour candidates were
defeated, afforded opportunity for big scale propaganda
in which, as a matter of course, Hardie played a pro-
minent part, evidently quite forgetful of the fact that
only a year before he had been almost at death's door.
At the same time, Parliamentary affairs developed in
262
FOREIGN POLICY
such a way as to throw him once more very prominently
into the limelight. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
had retired from the Premiership and was succeeded
by Mr. Asquith, a decided change for the worse from
the democratic standpoint, and almost of sinister import
having regar3 to the new Premier's imperialistic tenden-
cies and the international alliances which were in process
of being formed. Notwithstanding the repeated in-
quiries of MacDonald and other Labour Members for
information concerning the agreements which had been
coine to with tBe Czar's Government, no satisfactory or
informative statement had been vouchsafed, and there
were strong reasons for the suspicion that these agree-
ments were of such a character as to involve this country
in grave and unavoidable responsibility in the event of
an outbreak of war in Europe. When, therefore, the
announcement was made that King Edward was to pay
an official visit to the Czar at Reval, these suspicions
seemed to fine! confirmation, and it became the duty of
all friends of international peace to protest. The fact
that it was a Liberal Government which was pursuing
a policy quite in line with the designs of the Tory Party
threw the onus of opposition upon Labour, and against
the combined forces of the two imperialist parties,
Labour was in a hopeless minority and could do little
more than make its protest in such a way as to arrest
the attention of the nations.
Labour was opposed to the ostentatious recognition
of the Czar's Government, not only because of the dan-
gerous international commitments which it implied, but
also because of the flagrantly despotic character of that
Government which at that very time was engaged in
suppressing with calculated savagery every semblance
of constitutional rule. On every I.L.P. platform
throughout the country the King's visit to the Czar was
263
J. KEIR HARDIE
strongly condemned, Hardie, of course, being in the
very forefront of the attack. Under the title, "Consort-
ing with Murderers," he cpntributed a powerful article
to the "Labour Leader," detailing the crimes of Czar-
dom during the previous three years since the formation
of the first Duma, which he contended had only been
conceded for the purpose of giving confidence to
European financiers so as to induce them to advance
money to the Czar's Government, a contention which
had found confirmation in the fact that immediately on
the successful flotation of a loan of 90,000,000 the
newly-formed Duma had been forcibly disbanded, and
one hundred and sixty-nine of its members arrested and
imprisoned on the flimsiest charge, while seventy-four
members of the second Duma had shared the same fate.
The article gave the official figures of persons butchered
by the Black Hundred under Czarist auspices as 19,000
in two years, and the number of political prisoners
executed during the same time as 3,205; and it stated
that, during two months of the current year, 1,587
persons had been condemned to death or penal servitude
for no other reason than for being Radicals or Socialists.
"The Czar and his Government have been singled out
for honour by a Liberal Government. What is the
explanation?" The article went on to show that Rus-
sian finances were again in a bankrupt condition. The
Budget for the year showed a deficit of 20,000,000.
The Russian debt was 665,000,000, and there were
projects for a new navy and a new military railway at
a cost pf 70,000,000. A new loan was necessary.
"Financial reasons, therefore," continued the article,
"probably explain why King Edward has been advised
by his responsible advisers to pay this official visit to
a monarch reeking with the blood of his slaughtered
subjects. The Stock Exchange hook needed to be
264
FOREIGN POLICY
baited. Two years ago the bait was a popularly elected
Duma; this time it is a Royal crown. Truly kings have
their uses."
Language of this kind was not calculated to raise
its author in the esteem either of royalty or of the
financiers, nor was the persistence which the Labour
Party showed in bringing the question into the House
of Commons likely to be viewed with favour by the two
other parties, who were at one on the question of
Russian policy.
On June 3rd, Hardie came into conflict with the
Speaker over the rejection of a question which he had
put down as to the persecution of political prisoners
in Russia particulars of which he detailed asking
whether the British Government meant to make any
protest or to continue relations with the Czar's Govern-
ment. The question was disallowed as reflecting upon
"a friendly Power" ! Notwithstanding its rejection, he
managed to gain full publicity for it, which was all
he would probably have got even if he had been allowed
to put it. With all his directness, he was an astute
parliamentarian.
The following day, in committee on the Foreign
Office vote, Mr. James O'Grady, speaking for the
Labour Party, in an exceedingly effective speech, moved
that the salary of the Secretary of State be reduced, in
order that he might raise the question of the King's
visit to Russia. In the subsequent debate, Hardie
again incurred the censure of the chairman, who objected
to the use of the word "atrocities" as applied to a
friendly Power, and on Hardie replying that he knew
no other word in the English language to express his
meaning, a scene ensued, which provided the press with
many columns of sensational "copy." The chairman
insisted on the word "atrocities," which had only been
265
J. KEIR HARDIE
used once, being withdrawn. Hardie declined to with-
draw it, and continued on his feet, debating the chair-
man's ruling, and incidentally impeaching the Russian
Government. Other members intervened, mostly in
support of Hardie's position, until at last the chairman
threatened to name Hardie, with a view to his suspension.
His continued refusal brought the Prime Minister to his
feet with a dexterous definition of Parliamentary law,
and a direct appeal to Hardie to accept the chairman's
ruling. After a very evident mental conflict, he
reluctantly agreed to withdraw the term of offence, in
order, as he said, "to secure a division." This was
certainly a mistake in tactics, and was one of the very
few errors of judgment made by him during the whole of
his Parliamentary career. It was at least a refutation of
the charge often made against him of being a seeker after
notoriety. Suspension would have been his best card
if notoriety had been his object, but it would also have
been the most effective way of bringing home the nature
of the controversy to the public mind, and for that
reason it would have been better if he had held his
ground.
The most unfortunate feature of this debate was the
manner of its ending, Arthur Henderson moving the
closure just as Victor Grayson rose to continue the de-
bate. It was afterwards explained that an arrangement
had been come to between the leaders of the three
parties that the debate should close at a certain hour
and be followed by a division, which Grayson's inter-
vention would have prevented, but the fact that it was
the Labour Party leader who intervened gave some
colour to the accusation made in some quarters, that
Grayson was being ostracised, and it certainly helped to
roughen the already existing friction.
On this occasion it is noteworthy that more than one-
266
FOREIGN POLICY
half of the Liberal Party abstained from voting, while
the Tories voted solidly with the Liberal Government,
thus confirming Hardie's oft-repeated declaration that^/
on questions of foreign policy, the Asquith-Grey-
Haldane administration was in reality a Tory Imperialist
Government.
There wtCs a remarkable sequel to this debate, an
account of which may be left to one of the persons
directly involved, all the more as it provides us with
another of those contemporary pen-portraits of Hardie
which have genuine biographical value. The witness is
Arthur Ponsonby, who had recently entered the House
as the successor to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
in the representation of Stirling Burghs. Says Mr.
Ponsonby: "I first met Keir Hardie at a luncheon
party in the House of Commons before I myself was in
the House. Amongst others, another highly placed,
successful, and prominent Labour leader was present.
I remember contrasting the two, and I was immensely
struck by Keir Hardie's reticence and his occasional
incisive remarks, which were very different from his
colleague's voluble assurance. I decided inwardly
that K.H. was the genuine article. My upbringing and
the fact that I was a Liberal connected more or less
at the time with officialism, I thought might give him a
prejudice against me, but, on the contrary, he regarded
me approvingly and I felt sympathy in his extra-
ordinarily kindly smile. But I had only a nodding
acquaintance with him till 1908, when we were thrown
together in very peculiar circumstances. I had only
been a fortnight in the House when a debate came on
in which the Government defended the advice they had
given King Edward to visit the Czar at Reval. This
explanation appeared to me entirely inadequate. The
people of Russia were long oppressed and persecuted
267
J. KEIR BARDIE
in an abominable way, and I thought it morally and
practically wrong that this compliment should be paid
to the oppressor by a country which should always be
on the side of the oppressed. Without any hesitation I
voted with a small minority of Labour men and
Radicals against the Government. Keir Hardie was
among the number. Shortly afterwards, King Edward
gave a garden party to which all Members of the House
of Commons were invited. But four exceptions were
made. One member whose financial reputation was not
the best, Grayson, who had made one or two ineffective
demonstrations in the House, Keir Hardie and myself.
I did not pay much attention at first, thinking there was
probably some error. But when I discovered it had
been done very deliberately, and at the King's orders,
the incident assumed its honest proportions. It was no
longer a private affair but an insult to my constituents
and an attempt by the sovereign to influence votes of
Members by social pressure. Keir Hardie also had
been inclined to let the matter pass as an entirely
unimportant incident. But when I put it to him that it
was not a personal matter, but an official aspersion on
our constituencies, he agreed, and he deliberated with
his colleagues as to what course should be taken. The
press took up the matter with embarrassing eagerness
and the whole incident became embroidered out of all
proportion. I need not follow the course of events so
far as I personally was concerned, but Keir Hardie
decided eventually to let the matter drop after explain-
ing the position publicly in an interesting speech at
Stockport in which he showed how throughout his career
he had seen clearly that an attack on monarchy and the
advocacy of republican principles was of very little
consequence as compared with the attack on the economic
system.
268
KING'S GARDEN PARTY
"We had many a talk, and need I say a laugh, over
a cup of tea while the 'crisis' lasted, and we sympathised
with one another in our efforts to avoid the pressmen.
As regards the constitutional aspect of the incident, it
is interesting to recall that high officials in no way in
sympathy with our views had no doubt that the royal
disapproval ought never to have been expressed in this
way. In the 'Dictionary of National Biography* the
incident is referred to thus : ' Unwisely the King took
notice of the parliamentary criticism of his action, and
cancelled the invitation to a royal garden party of three
Members of Parliament. It was the only occasion
during the reign on which the King invited any
public suspicion of misinterpreting his constitutional
position.'
"Subsequently, whenever I made a speech against the
competition in armaments, or the policy of the balance
of power, or on any subject on which I could only expect
the support of a small minority, I invariably got a word
of encouragement and approval from Hardie.
:c There was always something in his uncompromising
directness and complete indifference to the approval of
the majority which attracted me. He was often blunder-
ingly tactless and rough, and though he was strictly
obedient to the forms of the House, he never indulged
in the little complimentary politenesses which some
Members find make life smoother. All this seemed to
me part of the armour he wore deliberately against the
insinuating influences of unaccustomed surroundings,
and of the atmosphere of authority to which men brought
up in a very different sphere of life not infrequently suc-
cumb. He seemed determined to preserve the integrity
of his opinions dangerously extreme as they were
thought in those days, and to the end he succeeded.
His geniality, his kindliness, and his appreciation of the
269
J. KEIR BARDIE
gentler arts of life, came as a surprise to those who
only knew him publicly."
Hardie's own references to the matter were character-
istic. He had no use for Kings' garden parties. He
had never attended any of them, and would probably
never have known that on this occasion the invitation
had not been sent had it not been that Ponsonby and
Grayson were also implicated. "But," said he, "I am
not going to allow either my position as a member of
the Labour Party, or my Socialism, or my views con-
cerning King Edward's visit to Russia, to control my
principles as a Member of the House of Commons. I
don't receive these invitations because I am Keir Hardie,
but because I am a Member of the House of Commons,
and if I am fit to represent the working classes of
Merthyr, I am fit to attend the garden party at Windsor. "
His views concerning the monarchy had been defined on
several previous occasions and it was hardly necessary
for him to reiterate his opinion that it was a wholly super-
fluous institution, only tolerable as long as it did not
actively interfere in the administration of the nation's
affairs or in directing its foreign policy. That it was being
so used in Russian (and, as we now know, in other)
affairs, there could not be any doubt, and it showed its
pettiness by this paltry ostracism. The Labour Party
at once took up the matter. If a king could take cog-
nisance of one Parliamentary act, then the constitutional
theory of Parliamentary independence was gone. That
week it therefore passed the following resolution and
sent it to those concerned :
"That the action of Mr. Hardie regarding the King's
visit to the Czar, which incurred the displeasure of His
Majesty and led to Mr. Hardie's name being removed
from the list of Members of Parliament recently invited
to Windsor, having been taken by instructions of the
270
KING'S GARDEN PARTY
Party, the Party desires to associate itself with Mr.
Hardie, who, in its opinion, exercised his constitutional
right on the occasion of the Foreign Office debate, and
it therefore requests that, until his name is restored to
such official lists, the names of all its members shall
be removed from them."
As a result, assurances were officially given that a
mistake had been made, and the matter was allowed to
dfop.
Following close upon the Government's open declara-
tion of friendliness to the Czar's regime, came a raging,
tearing anti-German press campaign, and it was possible
to discern in the propinquity of the two manifestations
something more than accidental coincidence. Its
tendency was undoubtedly to stimulate animosity
between the people of Britain and Germany and render
it difficult for peace lovers in both countries to make
headway against their respective militarist elements.
The British press campaign, naturally, had its reflection
in the German press, which found in our Dreadnought
programmes, our alliance with Japan, our Persian policy,
and our highly demonstrative entente with France and
Russia, the evidence of a policy Designed completely to
encompass and isolate Germany.
The obvious duty of Socialists "In both countries was
to give effect to the Marxian call, "Wage- workers of all
countries unite," and the most serious feature of the
British war scare was that the scaremongers included
two leading Socialists, Blatchford of the "Clarion," and
H. M. Hyndman of the Social Democratic Federation.
Blatchford visualised an immediate German invasion of
Britain and told hair-raising stories of embarkation
rehearsals on the other side of the North Sea.' Hynd-
man inveighed against all things German, and advo-
cated, as he had always done, the formation of a citizen
271
J. KEIR HARDIE
army, not primarily to resist capitalism, but to resist, if
not to attack, Germany. Even Lord Fisher, who was
getting his Dreadnoughts built, was constrained to
characterise the scare as silly. "The truth is/ 5 said he,
referring to the embarkation story, "that one solitary
regiment was embarked for manoeuvres. That is the
truth. I have no doubt that equally silly stories are
current in Germany." Unfortunately, in this country
the "silly stories" haci the endorsement of two promin-
ent Socialists, one of whom was believed in Germany
to be representative of British working-class opinion.
During the course of this scare there were sneering
references from Blatchford to the Labour Party as the
"Baa-Lamb School who believe that we ought not to
defend ourselves if attacked," as the "Ostrich School
who, because they want peace, refuse to see any danger
of war"; as the "Gilpin School, who had a frugal mind
and wanted peace at the lowest possible price." There
were also references to Hardie which approached the
verge of insult. Thus the capitalist-militarist game was
played and an international Socialist movement, which
alone could then have averted war, was weakened.
Hardie retorted with a strong article, the very com-
prehensiveness of which renders it difficult to summarise.
After showing that Germany had nothing to gain from
war with Britain and that there were interests in both
countries seeking profit out of the increasing expendi-
ture on armaments, he deprecated the fomenting of
antagonisms by avowed Socialists. He accused Hynd-
man of having ransacked the columns of the gutter
press for inuendoes and insults levelled against the
representatives of the German Empire, and of dishing
them up with all the assurance with which he was accus-
tomed to predict the date of the Social Revolution.
"Blatchford and Hyndman," he said, "seem to have set
272
FOREIGN POLICY
themselves the task of producing that very feeling of
inevitableness than which nothing could more strengthen
the hands of the warmongers on both shores of the
German Ocean, now known, I believe, as the North
Sea. Is that work worthy of the traditions of Socialism ?
I assure our German Socialist and Trade Union com-
rades that Blatchford and Hyndman speak for them-
selves alone, and that their attitude on this question
would be repudiated with practical unanimity by the
Trade Union movement could it be put to the vote.
The Labour Party stands for peace. We are prepared
to co-operate with our German friends in thwarting the
malignant designs of the small group of interested scare-
mongers, who in both countries would like to see war
break out." JjF
There was an immediate response to this closing
appeal. Bernstein wrote emphasising the danger of
stabilising the feeling of "inevitableness' ' as to war, and
did not minimise the fact that it had already taken deep
root amongst sections of the German people. He de-
clared it to be "the duty of Socialists to lift their voice
against the mad race in armaments which makes
civilised humanity, to its shame, the slave of conditions
which it ought to master." Bebel wrote prophetically :
"A war between England and Germany would lead to a
European that is to a world conflagration such as
has never before taken place. The German Social
Democratic Party will do its utmost to prevent such,
but should it happen in spite of all their efforts, those
who light this fire would also have to bear the conse-
quences that await them. The vast majority of Germans
are not thinking of war with England, and indeed do
not do so for very sober, selfish reasons. We have
nothing to gain, but much to lose."
This war scare temporarily died down, but its evil
273
J. KEIR HARDIE
effects remained, j The rival governments went on
unrestrainedly building- navies and increasing armies
against each other, and from this year, 1908, onward, it
became more and more difficult to contend against the
fatalistic expectations of war which had been created,
alike by the jingoism of the press and by the European
alliances entered into by Great Britain on the one hand
and Germany on the other. We drifted into war. Few
saw the tendency, and fewer strove to stop it. When
it came, the scaremongers who made it hurried
round and said with the air of prophets : "We told
you so."
Meantime, Hardie was once more on the high seas,
bound for Canada, having been invited by the leaders
of the Dominion Trade Union movement to attend the
Congress in Nova Scoria, on September 2ist. On this
occasion he was accompanied by Mrs. Hardie and
Agnes, their daughter. He had also for ship companion
Mr. Pels of America, the millionaire disciple of Henry
George, with whom he had long been on friendly terms,
and would fain have persuaded to accept the complete
Socialist conception of an ideal society. There is nothing
of much note to record concerning this Transatlantic
trip. He took part in the Congress as an honoured
guest, and endeavoured to convince the Canadians of
the value of Labour representation as a means of
reconciling elements which in Canada at that time were
irreconcilable. He augmented his stock of knowledge
regarding the industrial conditions of the Dominion,
and crossed over into the United States, where he
gathered impressions of the Presidential election then
taking place, the Socialist candidate being Eugene
Debs, who, for a wonder, was not in prison. But, on
the whole, it was more of a pleasure trip than was usual
with him, the companionship of his wife and daughter
274
FOREIGN POLICY
tending to save him from the propaganda traps lying in
wait for him everywhere. He arrived back in Glasgow
on October nth, and, after a few days spent at Cum-
nock, was in London in time to take part in the welcome
to Kautsky and Ledebour of Germany who had come
on the invitation of the British section of the Inter-
national Bureau. At the public meeting which took
place in the St. James's Hall, both German delegates
deprecated energetically the idea of war between the two
nations. Kautsky especially, in language which to-day
reads at once futile and prophetic, declared that capi-
talists themselves would be opposed to war. "Capitalism
feared war to-day because it knew that after war there
would be revolution. It was the certainty of revolu-
tion that would deter the exploiting capitalists of
Europe from entering upon a struggle which would be
death to capitalism itself." One can only say, alas !
alas ! We now know that though the war was followed
by revolution, the fear of revolution had no deterrent
effect upon capitalism.
Har die's contribution to the speech-making was ani^X
impassioned appeal to organised labour to place no
faith in armies, "whether citizen or by whatever name
they might be called" an exhortation which imme-
diately roused the ire of the chairman, Mr. Hyndman,
who, as we know, was a strong supporter of the citizen
army idea, j The fact that there were these divisions
among Btfash Socialists themselves, detracted largely
from the value of this meeting as an influence for inter-
national peace.
Whilst this darkening shadow of impending inter-
national war was slowly gathering and filling the minds
of serious men with ominous forebodings, there was
serious enough trouble in the industrial world at home.
A period of trade depression had again come round
275
J. KEIR HARDIE
had indeed hardly been absent for several years and
month by month the records of unemployment went on
increasing, accompanied by even stronger manifestations
of discontent than on previous occasions. There had
been disturbances in most of the big towns. At Glas-
gow a great crowd of workless men, led by members of
the I.L.P., themselves unemployed, had stormed the
City Council Chambers demanding work, and from
thence had marched threateningly into the West End.
At Manchester there had been similar scenes and
violent conflicts with the police, resulting in arrests, and
in several persons being sentenced to long terms of
imprisonment. All through the summer, the Parlia-
mentary Labour Party had been pressing the Govern-
ment to give the financial aid which alone could make
the Unemployment Act really serviceable, and to make
the Distress Committee powers compulsory instead of
permissive, and it had at last secured the promise of a
statement from the Government as to its intentions.
On the day following that on which this promise was
made, Mr. Victor Grayson created a scene in the House
by moving the adjournment, his expressed desire being
"that it should consider a matter of urgent importance
the question of unemployment." and on being told by
the Speaker that, under the rules of the House, he
could not move the adjournment at that juncture, he
declared that he refused to be bound by the rules.
After a somewhat lengthy altercation with the Speaker
and many interjections from the members, he withdrew
from the House, but not before he had stigmatised the
Labour Members as "traitors to their class, who refuse
to stand by their class." The following day, while the
House was in Committee on the Licensing Bill, a
similar scene ensued, which ended in Grayson being
suspended.
276
INTERNAL STRIFE
Hardie's view of the matter had best be given in his
own words :' "Grayson came to the House of Commons 1 -"'
on Thursday, but spoke to no one of his intentions,
consulted no one and did not even intimate that he
meant to make a scene. That may be his idea of comrade-
ship; it is not mine.^f Nor is it what the I.L.P. will
tolerate from one of its members. If the Labour Party,
or if the I.L.P. members, had been invited to take part
in a protest and had refused, then Grayson's action
might have been justifiable, but acting as he did, no
other result, could be expected than that which
happened. 4 If a protest is to be made, it must be done
unitedly, and in a manner to command respect." J
Hardie, as we know, had no reverential regard for
the rules of the House though he had known how to
make use of them for his own purposes, but he had very
great regard for the prestige of trie Labour Party in the
House and in the country. He, of all men, could not
be accused of indifference to the claims of the unem-
ployed. What legislation on their behalf did exist was
mainly the outcome of his efforts at a time when he
stood alone. But now that there was a Labour Party
in the House, he held that upon that Party rested the
responsibility of forcing the hands of the Government,
and that isolated action by one individual could only
have a disruptive effect upon the Socialist movement
without being helpful to the unemployed.
There was, moreover, some reason to believe that the
Grayson histrionics were deliberately intended to pro-
duce the disruption deprecated by Hardie, and an
incident which occurred outside the House, almost
immediately after, seemed to verify that belief .[ Grayson
and Hyndman refused to appear on the same^platform ~
as Hardie at a public meeting under the auspices of
the Clarion Van Committee, a body existing for the
T 277
J. KEIR HARDIE
purpose of promoting the Clarion Van propaganda
carried on in connection with Blatchford's paper.
Hardie, Hyndman and Grayson had been invited by the
Committee to speak at demonstrations in the Hoiborn
and Finsbury Town Halls. Hardie had agreed to do
so and was much surprised to receive a letter from the
secretary on the day previous to the meetings, request-
ing him to "refrain from attending the meetings," the
reason given being that Hyndman and Grayson were
unable to join with him as speakers.
That this extraordinary and insulting attitude towards
the greatest of all working-class agitators was the out-
come of something more than mere personal pettiness
was evidenced by the fact that the "Clarion" was at
this time devoting its columns to the promulgation of a
new Socialist Party, with the Clarion Scouts and the
Clarion Fellowship as the nucleus, and dissentient
I.L.P. members as potential recruits; whilst Hyndman
justified his action by reference to Hardie' s anti-war
scare article, and to his attack on a citizen army at the
reception to the German delegation. The best comment
upon this disgraceful episode was supplied by an un-
solicited letter to the "Labour Leader" from M. Beer,
London correspondent of "Vorwarts," whose recently
published "History of British Socialism" is recognised
as the standard authority on the subject. Beer had
dissented strongly from Hardie's views at the time of
the class-war discussion, and his support of Hardie
now was therefore all the more valuable. The letter
has both biographical and historical interest, and is
therefore reproduced here intact. As an exposition of
the practical philosophy of the British Labour Party
movement from the point of view of a Marxian dis-
ciple it is worth considering at the present time. The
letter was as follows :
278
INTERNAL STRIFE
"To the Editor of the 'Labour Leader/
"Comrade, Kindly permit me to express, first of all,
my sincere and respectful sympathy for Keir Hardie
with regard to the deplorable Holborn Town Hall inci-
dent. As a close observer of the British Labour move-
ment, I regard the work of Keir Hardie to be of much
more permanent value than that of Hyndman, Shaw,
Blatchford, Wells, let alone Grayson. Of all British
Socialists none, in my judgment, has grasped the essence
of modern Socialism aye, of Marxism better than
Hardie. Moreover, none has done in practice better
work than Hardie. His silent, clear-headed and con-
sistent efforts in the first years of the L.R.C. on behalf
of the unity and independence of organised Labour,
would alone be sufficient to raise him to the front rank
of Socialist statesmanship. For what is the essence of
modern Socialism as Marx taught it? The political
independence of Labour. And what is the foremost
duty of a Socialist in the class struggle? To divorce
Labour from the parties of the possessing class. All
that Keir Hardie has done, more by virtue of a practi-
cally unerring proletarian instinct than by theorising
and speculating about revolution and so-called con-
structive Socialism. Socialism is not made, but it is
growing out of the needs and struggles of organised
Labour. The most simple Labour organisation, fighting
for high wages, shorter hours and better Labour laws,
does more for Socialism than all the Utopian books of
Wells, all the Swiftean wit of Shaw, all the revolution-
ary speeches of Hyndman, and all the sentimental
harangues of Grayson. I have been saying that for
years in the 'Vorwarts,' in the 'Neue Zeit/ and some-
times in 'Justice.' And now let me make a confession.
Soon after the election of Grayson, my editor asked
me whether I did not think it advisable to interview
279
J. KEIR HARDIE
Gray son for the 'Vorwarts.' I replied it would be
better to wait; the British Socialists, with their wonted
hero-worship, were already spoiling him; there would
be a meeting at the Caxton Hall (in September, 1907),
when Grayson was to speak. I should then have an
opportunity of arriving at some judgment about him.
The meeting took place, MacDonald being the chair-
man, Curran and Grayson the chief speakers. After that
meeting, of which I gave a report in the 'Vorwarts,' I
wrote about Grayson. 'He is very self-conscious; his
Socialism consists of commiseration with the poor; in
his speech he didn't mention the Labour movement at
all. Now, modern Socialism has very little to do with
poor men stories but a great deal with organised Labour.
Grayson has still much to learn about Socialism and he
may learn it if he remains in close touch with the Labour
Party.' ('Vorwarts,' September, 1907.) In approving
wholeheartedly of the policy of Hardie, I also approve
of the general policy of J. R. MacDonald. At the pub-
lication of his 'Socialism and Society' he had no severer
critic than myself, because I suspected him of attempt-
ing to weaken the independence of the Labour Party. I
still consider him what the Germans call a 'Revisionist,'
but at the same time I cannot help perceiving that his
general policy is at present thoroughly in conformity
with the mental condition of the British Labour move-
ment. Any other policy might at the present juncture
spell disruption. We can't force movements of
oppressed classes. We must allow them to develop and
to ripen. 'Ripeness is all.' Fraternally yours,
"M. BEER,
"London, November 22nd, 1908."
It should be said that this letter was followed by
one from H. G. Wells protesting against being "lumped
280
INTERNAL STRIFE
with Hyndman, Shaw, Blatchford and Grayson, as
being opposed to the work of Hardie," and viewing "with
infinite disgust the deplorable attacks upon the I.L.P.
leaders." These attacks upon Hardie had the usual
effect of strengthening the loyalty of the I.L.P. rank
and file who, through their branch secretaries, literally
bombarded him with assurances of esteem and
confidence.
Amid it all, he went on with his work, and in the same
issue of the "Leader" in which Beer's appreciation
appeared, he had an appeal to the local education
authorities to give effect to the Provision of Meals for
Children Act and reminded them that they possessed
powers to supply each scholar in every public school
with two or three substantial meals each day. "I have
frequently," he said, "had occasion to point out that if
in this and other respects the existing law were put into
operation the hardships and suffering due to unemploy-
ment would be mitigated."
There never was a more practical idealist than J. Keir
Hardie. fBy blocking a North British Railway Bill, he,
compelled that company to withdraw its dismissal of a
number of its employees who had been elected as Town
Councillors, and in December he introduced an "Emer-
gency Unemployment Bill" to enable Distress Commit-
tees to use the penny rate levy for the payment of wages,
and to provide for special Committees where no Dis-
tress Committee was in existencef] His object was to
make the present Act workable during the winter,
pending the promised Government measure. He also
protested strongly against the mutilation by the House
of Lords of the Miners' Eight Hours' Day Bill, but as
the Miners' Federation had agreed to accept the amend-
ments rather than lose the Bill altogether, he had to waive
his objections. Every hour of his waking time seemed
281
J. KEIR HARDIE
to be filled with work. "I envy the editor of the
'Clarion/ " he wrote, "the quiet day at home in which
to write his article on the political situation. Some of
us are nomads and vagrants all the time, and have to
write as odd moments offer, in the midst of many other
and divers duties."
In proof of this, he appended his week's diary of
work, which included attendance and speech-making in
the House of Commons, six hours' sitting on the
"Coal Mines Eight Hours' Bill Committee," a "Right
to Work Executive" meeting, a "Labour Party" meet-
ing, a conference with French workmen delegates, an
I.L.P. Parliamentary Committee meeting, a week-
end public meeting at Halifax, besides correspondence
entailing over a hundred replies to personal letters.
Hardie did not really envy Blatchford his life of leisured
journalism, but he resented strongly the habitual
assumption of pontifical authority on working-class
questions by one who had no practical connection with
the working class, who did not participate in any of the
drudgery inseparable from the work of labour organisa-
tion, who was not in a position to understand working-
class psychology, and who held himself safely aloof
from all official responsibility. Hardie was amongst
the workers every day. He knew every phase of work-
ing-class life, not only that of the toiling underground
collier, but of the skilled artisan, the sweated labourer,
the under-paid woman. His life purpose was to make
the working class united and powerful, and conscious
of its power; and he believed he knew better than
Hyndman and Blatchford t{ie methods whereby that
purpose could be achieved. [ It had been no easy task
to call the Labour Party into being, and he was cer-
tainly not going to allow it to be destroyed by the
subversive and divisive tactics which were now being
282
INTERNAL STRIFE
used. New parties might be .formed bearing all manner
of names, but the Labour Party would remain and
be moulded towards Socialism by the I.L.P. as long as
the breath of life remained in the founder of both
organisations.
'The climax came at the 1909 Conference of the I.L.P.
held at Edinburgh. At this Conference, a proposal
that the I.L.P. should sever itself from the Labour
Party found only eight supporters against three hundred
and seventy-eight in favour of "maintaining unimpaired
the alliance of Labour and Socialism as affording the
best means for the expression of Socialism to-day/' A
further resolution declaring that "no salary be paid to
Members of Parliament unless such Members sign the
Labour Party constitution" was adopted by 352 votes
to 64. Thus was reaffirmed with emphasis the funda-
mental principles of the Labour Party alliance. It was
otherwise when the same principle reappeared in a form
involving the discussion of Grayson' s conduct outside
the House of Commons.
A paragraph in the N.A.C. report explained the
reasons why that body had ceased to arrange meetings
for Grayson. They were that he had failed to fulfil
engagements already made, and that his refusal to
appear with Hardie on the Holborn Town Hall plat-
form made it useless to fix up meetings for him
through the Head Office. On the motion of Grayson
himself, this paragraph was "referred back" that is to
say, deleted from the Report by 217 to 194 votes.
This could only be interpreted as an approval of Gray-
,^on's action, and of the motives which had actuated it.
Hardie, Glasier, Snowden and MacDonald so inter-
preted it, and resigned from the N.A.C. to which they
had just been re-elected by large majorities, Hardie,
as usual, being at the top of the poll a paradoxical
283
J. KEIR HARDIE
state of matters which evinced considerable mental
confusion on the part of the delegates. The resigna-
tions were announced by MacDonald, who was chair-
man, in a firm speech in which he declared that he and
his three colleagues declined to associate themselves
with the growth of what seemed to them an impossiblist
movement within the Party, with its spirit of irresponsi-
bility, its modes of expression, and its methods of
bringing Socialism; and he affirmed that it was not the
mere reference back of the paragraph which made them
take that action, but the source and antecedents of that
event. The Conference, thus brought to face the impli-
cations of its censuring decision, quickly realised its
mistake, and with only ten dissentients, passed the
following resolution, which was, of course, equivalent
to a rescinding of the Grayson motion : : ' That this
Conference hears with regret the statement made on
behalf of the outgoing National Administrative Council,
and desires to express its emphatic endorsement of
their past policy, and its emphatic confidence, personal
and political, in Messrs. MacDonald, Keir Hardie,
Bruce Glasier, and Snowden, and most earnestly
requests them to withdraw their resignation." This
the four members declined to do; Hardie, who spoke
with strong feeling, declaring that they had been
regarded as limpets clinging to office, and that
members present and a section of the Socialist press
had put forward that statement. The trouble with
Grayson was that success had come to him too easily,
and he was surrounded by malign influences that would
ruin his career a prediction that was unfortunately
amply fufilled. Grayson, Hyndman and Blatchford
had refused to appear on the same platform with him,
and it had gone abroad that he had lost the confidence
of the movement. Self-respect demanded that a stand
284
INTERNAL STRIFE
should be made. He valued the opinion expressed by
the Conference. He would like it sent down to the
branches, especially to those where there was that small,
snarling, semi-disruptive element. They must fight
that down, and if need be fight it out. With his col-
leagues he was going to test the question whether the
I.L.P. was to stand for the consolidation of the working-
class movement, or whether, departing from the lines
of sanity, they should follow some chimera called
Socialism and Unity spoken of by men who did not
understand Socialism and were alien to its very
spirit.
Thus, in the sixteenth year of the I.L.P., its founder
ceased to be a member of its executive, and with him ^
the three men most representative to the public mind of
the spirit and policy of the Party. Of the four, Glasier
was the only one who was not a Member of Parliament,
but he was editor of the " Labour Leader/' which
expressed the policy of the Party. During his four-and-
a-half years of editorship, the circulation had increased
from 13,000 to 40,000, but, nevertheless, his editorial
conduct had been severely and unfairly criticised
during this Conference from the same sources which
had promoted the disruptive tactics, and in addition to
resigning from the N.A.C. he announced his intention
of ceasing to be editor as soon as another could be found
to.take his place.
Superficially, it seemed as if the designs of the
enemies of the I.L.P. had been accomplished, and that
the Party had been rent in twain. Those who thought
so knew little of the I.L.P. or of the men who had
resigned from office in order to meet disaffection in the
branches. The influence of the four retiring men had
increased rather than diminished. The work of the
I.L.P. lay, where it has always been"; in the country, and
285
J. KEIR HARDIE
the branches continued to do the work with an energy
that this internal strife only stimulated.
/ I Eight months later came the General Election, with
the I.L.P. and Labour Party candidates in the field
working together, and the membership unitedly behind
them, fighting for Socialism and for working-class
political power. The efforts to disintegrate the Labour
movement had failed. J
In the months prior to the General Election there
occurred opportunities of a kind to test the moral
courage of the Parliamentary Labour Party and demon-
strate the need for the existence of such a Party. The
most outstanding of these was the visit of the Czar to
this country and his official reception by the Government
at Cowes. The significance of this would have passed
almost unnoticed but for the protest of the Labour
Party, so much at one were the Liberals and Tories on
the question of foreign policy. On July 22nd, on the
Civil Service vote, Arthur Henderson, as leader of the
Labour Party, delivered a strong speech denunciatory
of the Government's action as being in effect a condone-
ment of the crimes of the Czar and his Government
against the common people of Russia. His recital of
those crimes drew from Sir Edward Grey the memorable
and immoral declaration that "it is not our business
even to know what passes in the internal affairs of
other countries where we have no treaty rights," an
avowal which Hardie, who followed, had no difficulty
in proving to be without either historical or political
vindication, by recalling the action of Mr. Gladstone
with regard to the internal affairs of Naples and the
tyranny of King Bomba, and also the more recent
interventions in the matter of the Congo and of Armenia.
This was one of the finest utterances Hardie ever made
i :, in the House of Commons. ? In his closing words he
286
FOREIGN POLICY
appealed for a clear vote of the House on this subject
of the Czar, as apart from the general discussion which
had included other topics. -"It was because he belonged
to a Party whose whole sympathies were with the people
of Russia in the great fight which they were making,
and because he knew that every section of the advanced
movement in Russia, from the extreme Socialist to the
mildest Liberal, regarded the visit of the Czar to this
country as, to some extent, throwing back their cause
by giving him the official recognition of a great demo-
cratic State, that he, and those with him, opposed the
visit."
This protest, which was re-echoed from every Labour
platform in the country, had its effect. Not only did it
wash the hands of British organised labour from the
blood-guiltiness involved in the Russian alliance and
left the Party free to oppose the development of the
policy which that alliance implied, but, as a result, the
Czar remained on board his yacht at Cowes and did not
set foot on English soil. It is true to say that at the
forging of every link which bound Britain to Imperialist
Russia in a common policy, the Labour Party made an
effort to prevent the chain from being completed ; and
it is also true to say that this was mainly due to the
influence of the I.L.P. within the Labour Party, seeking
thereby to perform its duty as a part of the International
Socialist movement.
And not only with regard to Russia did the Labour
Party maintain this attitude of sympathy with the
oppressed, but with regard to every land whose affairs
came in any way under the cognisance of the British
Parliament. It championed the claims of the South
African natives during the passage of the Draft Con-
stitution of the South African Union; it protested by
speech and vote against the suppression of civil liberty
287
J. KEIR HARDIE
and the right of free speech in India; it supported the
Irish Nationalists in their claims for Home Rule and
joined hands with the Egyptian people in their demands
for the establishment of their long withheld national
independence. On foreign and colonial policy the
Labour Party was, in fact, at this time, the only Parlia-
mentary Opposition, and the only source from which
emanated any virile criticism.
In all this work Hardie was bearing a very large
share, not .only in Parliament, but in the country and in
the world, firms, for example, we find him with George
N. Barnes, representing the Labour Party at the Annual
Conference of the Young Egyptian Party at Geneva,
and hailed there as a valued friend and counsellor.
One passage of his speech on that occasion should be
preserved, if for no other reason than that it is in direct
contrast to the conception of him prevalent in some
quarters as an irresponsible firebrand and mischief
maker. "Beware," he said, "of secret organisation and
of all thoughts of an armed rising for the overthrow of
British authority. Every patriotic movement which
indulges in secret forms of organisation places itself in
the power of the Government. Such organisations are
sure to be honeycombed by spies and traitors. The
experience of Ireland in former times, and of Russia at
present, is all the proof needed on this score. Work
openly and in the light of day for the creation of public
opinion in Egypt and Great Britain, and have no fear
of the result."
With this wide outlook upon the progress of demo-
cracy throughout the world, it is not surprising that
abstract contentions about Socialist dogma sometimes
seemed to him irrelevant and trivial, and the intrigues
within the Labour and Socialist movement, petty and
vexatious.
288
WOMEN
Nor must it be forgotten that all this time the Women's
Suffrage movement was becoming more violently militant
in its tactics, breaking up meetings of friends and foes
alike, and acting generally on the principle that every
other cause must stand still until the women's claims
had been conceded. The women themselves were con-
sistent and courageous in carrying through this policy,
and nearly all the time there were numbers of them
suffering imprisonment. To Hardie and Snowden
they looked chiefly to champion their cause in Parlia-
ment and exploit their martyrdoms for propaganda
purposes, and it is to be feared that they did not reflect
that while harassing the Government they were also
harassing their best friends and putting a serious strain
upon physiques already overwrought. Nor was this all.
Miss Mary Macarthur, of the Federation of Women
Workers, has told us how, in the midst of her work of
organising the underpaid and sorely sweated women of
East London, Hardie was the one Labour Member
upon whom she could always rely to come down and
speak words of sympathy and encouragement to those
victims of commercialism.
He responded to every call, and never counted the
cost to himself, and when occasionally he ran off for a
brief spell of rest it was an extremely wearied, though
undaunted man, whom his friends among the Welsh
hills welcomed to their firesides.
289
CHAPTER TWELVE
TWO GENERAL ELECTIONS INDUSTRIAL TURMOIL THE
BRINK OF WAR
IN the two general elections of 1910, the man in the
limelight was Mr. Lloyd George who has managed
to retain that position fairly continuously ever since,
though he has long ago made friends of his whilom
enemies, and has thrust aside the semi-revolutionary
ladder by which he rose to fame and power. The agita-
tions over the land taxation budget and House of Lords'
reforms seem now very remote, and in view of recent
jugglings with national finance extremely futile. But
at the time I have now reached, it was an exceedingly
noisy agitation and apparently sincere. Mr. George,
with his lurid hen-roost oratory, and the peers, with
their die-in-the-last-ditch constitutionalism, had, be-
tween them, created a decidely class-war atmosphere,
and there were timid people who actually believed that
the nation was on the eve of great events foreshadowing,
in the words of Lord Rosebery, the "end of all things."
The Labour Party in Parliament had naturally
supported the land taxation proposals and also those for
a super-tax on incomes, but only as initial concessions to
the Socialist claim that all unearned increment should
belong to the nation. Philip Snowden, now the recog-
nised exponent of Socialist finance, made this unmis-
takably clear in a series of brilliant speeches at various
stages of the Finance Bill. On the question of the
v House of Lords, the Labour Party stood for the
290
GENERAL ELECTION
abolition of that institution, but, as a matter of practical
politics supported any proposal having for its object the
immediate limitation of the power of the second Cham-
ber. The Labour and the Liberal Parties were thus,
though in principle far apart as the poles, in apparent
accord on electoral policy a state of matters not to the
advantage of Labour. The strategical weakness of the
Liberals lay in the fact that they had not, and could not
have, any policy on unemployment to counter the
attractive and strongly boomed Tariff Reform proposals
of the Unionists.
In the election which took place in January, 1910, the
Liberals lost one hundred seats and the Labour Party
lost five. All the leading Labour men, however, held
their seats, Hardie keeping his by a greatly increased
majority, though on this occasion he had a second
Liberal opponent, in the person of Pritchard Morgan,
whom he had defeated in 1900, and who now, as if
determined on revenge, conducted the usual campaign
of scurrilous abuse and misrepresentation. . One very
special lie circulated assiduously and insidiously, though
not in print, represented Hardie as being a man of
wealth, who owned an estate in Scotland and h,ad sold
the "Labour Leader" to the I.L.P. for 20,000. Up to
the last there were credulous people who believed these
stupid stories and pestered him for subscriptions to
various kinds of ostensibly charitable objects. He, as
a matter of fact, had refused to subscribe to local insti-
tutions such as football clubs and bowling clubs, for the
sufficient reason that over and above his objections on
principle, he had hardly enough income to meet the
frugal requirements of his own household. The elec-
tion campaign on this occasion was more prolonged and
even more strenuous than the two previous ones, but
need not be described here. The result seemed to carry
t
291
J. KEIR HARDIE
with it the assurance that his position in Merthyr was
absolutely impregnable. He had polled 13,841 votes
as compared with 10,187 in 1906, and his majority had
increased from 2,411 to 9,105.
An extract from his election address may be given
as showing with what skill he raised the contest above
merely temporary or local controversies. ; ' There are
issues that go deeper than any of those raised by the
traditional parties in this contest. Mr. Balfour has said
that he wants this election fought on the issues of
Socialism and Tariff Reform. I accept Mr. Balfour's
challenge, and put my Socialism against his Tariff
Reform. He wants to use the State for the benefit of
the rich. I want to use it for the benefit of all,LSocialism
; is the one system whereby man may escape from the
dreary labyrinth of poverty, vice and beggarliness in
life in which the race is now aimlessly wandering/^
He himself attributed his electoral success to the fact
that Socialism had been made the supreme issue, and the
following February, in his closing words as chairman
of the Labour Party Conference, he affirmed adherence
to that principle to be a necessary condition of success
for the entire Labour Party. "Whether we like it or
not, in every contest we wage, our opponents will see
to it that Socialism is kept well to the front. Our can-
didates and workers will therefore do well to equip
themselves for that line of attack. Socialism has no
terrors for honest people. The caricatures and vile mis-
representation of Socialism fail entirely when the case
for Socialism is put lucidly before the people. We do
not want to see any vain beating of the air as is too
often done in the name of Socialism, but it is imperative
that every man who is put forward as a candidate under
Labour auspices should be able to defend and expound
Socialism when it is attacked by the enemies of Labour."
292
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
It must be confessed that there have been, and still are,
many Labour candidates whose qualifications do not
conform to the standard set up by the founder of the
Labour Party.
ijin passing, it should be noted that this year the
British Miners' Federation became affiliated to the
Labour Party, and thus another decisive step was taken
in the political consolidation of the working class, 'j
All through the year the great constitutional contro-
versy continued, and the people became so deeply
engrossed shouting for or against Lloyd George that
they forgot all about Sir Edward Grey, a much more
fateful statesman if they had only known it.
The rival partisans debated hotly as to whether the
House of Lords should be ended or mended, as to how
many new peers it would be necessary to create to
render that House impotent, or as to how many times
a reformed Second Chamber should be allowed to throw
out a Bill before it became law ; and while this political
comedy of "much ado about next to nothing" was pro-
ceeding, the diplomats and the Imperialists were not idle.
Lord Roberts continued his propaganda for compul-
sory military service, the introduction of which the War
Office partially anticipated by encouraging railway com-
panies and large employers of labour to make service
in the Territorial forces a condition of employment.
Mr. Haldane's "nation in arms" was materialising in
spite of protests from Hardie and his colleagues. The
Admiralty was getting its Dreadnoughts built. Germany
was adding to its fleet. France was raising the peace-
time strength of its army, and, more fateful than all,
British and French financiers were investing their
millions in Russia, and staking out concessions of
industrially exploitable territory in that unhappy Czar-
ridden country. In the midst of the evolution of a policy
U 293
J. KEIR HARDIE
in which he took special interest and played a prominent
part, King Edward died. His successor was enthroned.
Liberals and Tories called a temporary truce. They
mingled their tears for the dead monarch, combined
their cheers for the living one, and then went on with
the farce, "The Peers versus the People."
One tragic interlude there was, turning public atten-
tion for a few brief hours to the realities of industrial
life. This was the Whitehaven disaster. Following close
/ upon the death of King Edward camethe death of one
^ hundred and thirty working miners under appalling and,
as many people believed, preventable circumstances;
repeated recommendations by special scientific investi-
gators for the minimising of risks of explosions in mines
having been ignored alike by the Home Office and by
the mineowners chiefly because of the expense. The
feeling raised amongst the mining community by the
Whitehaven disaster was, if anything, intensified by
what many of them regarded as the too hasty closing
up of the mine before all possible efforts at rescue had
been exhausted. Hardie, ever sensitive where the lives
of miners were concerned, gave public expression to his
opinion that when the mine was bricked up the men
were probably still alive; an opinion which Mr.
Churchill, the Home Secretary, described as "cruel and
disgraceful." Hardie, of course, was not the man to rest
under such an aspersion. He repeated his statement in
Parliament, and in an interview replied directly to
Churchill's accusation, and raised the whole question of
safety in mines. "Mr. Winston Churchill's comment,"
he said, "is characterised by righteousness which could
only proceed from a total ignorance of what I said and
of the facts of the case. In the course of the speech to
which Mr. Churchill refers I gave it as my opinion,
based upon my practical experience as a miner, that at
294
WHITEHAVEN DISASTER
the time it was decided to wall up the mine the miners
were in all probability still alive. I adhere to that
opinion. I further stated that had the spirit of the Mines'
Regulation Act been carried out in connection with the
working of the mine, the disaster would not have
occurred. The fire which imprisoned the miners took
place in what was known as the bottle-neck, and appar-
ently this was the only means of egress from the work-
ings beyond. The bottle-neck working's branch oft in
five main levels, and it would have been an easy matter
to have had a safety road laid from this to the pit shaft,
so that in the event of the main haulage road between
the shaft and the bottle-neck getting blocked up, the
other would have been available for the men to escape
by. I suggested that these were matters which would
require to be investigated, and it is this suggestion which
the Home Secretary characterises as cruel and disgrace-
ful. Working miners of the country will have a different
opinion. I hope Mr. Churchill is not more concerned
about shielding^ the mineowner than he is about finding
out the truth." 'Whether Hardie was right as to the men
being alive wKen the order to close up the mines was
given, cannot now be proved, but his opinion had the
support of men deeply interested in the matter, the
rescue party having to be forcibly restrained from
removing the brickwork and going on with their efforts
to save life, even though told they would be throwing
their own lives away.
This catastrophe occurred now eleven years ago.
The mining community know best what improvements,
if any, have taken place since then, and they also are
best able to judge whether the kind of^protests made by
Keir Hardie were necessary or not. QHe never forgot
that he was a miner, and a representative of minersj
In the endeavour to preserve some continuity in this
295
J. KEIR HAHDIE
story of Hardie's life, the writer has up to the present
found it difficult to bring into view one aspect of his
nature which is, nevertheless, essential to form a complete
estimate of the man. His love for and understanding
of children was only equalled by the love of children
for him. It was a case of "like draws to like." Young
folk were drawn to him as he to them, instinctively. He
has spoken of himself as the man who never was a child,
and that was true so far as his own literal experience
was concerned. Yet it might be even truer to say that
he was all his life a child. Perhaps, even, it was his
childlike directness and straightforwardness that
rendered him immune from all kinds of sophistry and
double-dealing and made him a perpetual puzzle to
men of the world playing the game of politics. Be that
as it may, it was certainly true that even in the midst
of the most serious work he could lift himself out of
the hurly-burly and become as a little child. In the
many households which he entered during his goings to
and fro, the presence of children always put him at his
ease and made him feel at home. There are many
grown-up men and women in the Socialist movement
who cherish as one of the unforgettable things of their
bairntime the occasion when Keir Hardie took them
upon his knee, or hoisted them on to his shoulders and
made chums of them. He could tell them stories,
wonderful stories stories sometimes of the wise pit
ponies that were his own chums in the days of his
boyhood, or of the ongoings of "Roy," the wise collie
waiting to welcome him home far away in Cumnock, or
of the Red Indians he had met in America, or, as often
happened, a fairy tale made up "out of his own head"-
that very head amongst whose grizzled locks the hands
of the delighted youngsters were at that moment playing.
This love and understanding of children did not in
296
CHILDREN
any way interfere with or hinder his work for Socialism.
It became part and parcel of it. In the 1910 volume
of the "Young Socialist" this very year when he
and his colleagues were beset by so much political
perplexity there is a short story entitled "Jim" written
by him. A story of a forlorn London slum laddie and
of two equally forlorn London slum dogs the only
dogs in fiction I think that ever entered Heaven. It is
a simply told tale blended of fantasy and realism, of
humour and pathos, and of tender deep compassion.
The literary world, of course, never heard of this child
story by Keir Hardie, nor of others of the same kind
which he wrote from time to time. They were not
written to gain money, or reputation. They were written
for the children of the Socialist movement. In the
early years of the "Labour Leader" he, under the nom
de -plume of "Daddy Time," conducted a children's
column and from week to week held homely converse
with the bairns. Around this weekly talk there grew a
kind of young folk's fellowship, which called ilself
"The Crusaders," and out of this again there came the
Socialist Sunday School movement, the mere sound
and rumour of which has made the hairs of so many
pious but ignorant people stand on end. Good men and
women gave their time and love to the building of it.
Miss Lizzie Glasier, the sister of Bruce Glasier,
Archibald McArthur (known as "Uncle Archie"), Clarice
McNab, now Mrs. B. H. Shaw, Alfred Russell, Robert
Donaldson, Fred Coates, Alex. Gossip, John Burns (of
Glasgow), and a host of others, but all deriving their
inspiration from Hardie, who, to them, was literally the
"Great Exemplar." Thousands of young folks have
passed through the schools and into the fighting and
teaching ranks of the general Socialist advance. And
so, in the words of William Morris, "the cause goes
297.
J. KEIR HARDIE
marching on," and with it the name and the memory of
Keir Hardie.
..September brought the International Socialist Con-
gress once more, this time at Copenhagen. This
Congress is memorable chiefly for the proposal by the
I.L.P., with the approval of the British section, that
the General Strike should be considered as a means
of preventing war.,' This proposal took the form of an
amendment to the resolution brought forward by the
Commission on Anti-Militarism. Hardie had endeav-
oured to get his proposal incorporated in the resolutions,
and, failing in that, now moved it as an amendment. In
view of all that has happened since, and of what is
happening still in the efforts to reconstitute a satisfactory
Socialist International, it will be wise to reproduce these
resolutions here, with the "General Strike" amendment.
"The Congress, reiterating the oft-repeated duty of
Socialist representatives in the Parliaments to combat
militarism with all the means at their command and to
refuse the means of armaments, requires from its
representatives :
"(a) The constant reiteration of the demand that
international arbitration be made compulsory in all inter-
national disputes;
"(b) Persistent and repeated proposals in the direction
of ultimate disarmament, and, above all, as a first step,
the conclusion of a general treaty limiting naval arma-
ments and abrogating the right of privateering;
"(c) The demand for the abolition of secret diplomacy
and the publication of all existing and future agreements
between the Governments;
"(d) The guarantee of the independence of all nations
and their protection from military attacks and violent
suppression.
"The International Socialist Bureau will support all
298
MILITARISM
Socialist organisations in this fight against militarism by
furnishing them with the necessary data and information,
and will, when the occasion arises, endeavour to bring
about united action. In case of warlike complications
this Congress re-affirms the resolution of the Stuttgart
Congress, which reads :
'In case of war being imminent, the working classes
and their Parliamentary representatives in the countries
concerned shall be bound, with the assistance of the
International Socialist Bureau, to do all they can to
prevent the breaking out of the war, using for this pur-
pose the means which appear to them to be most effica-
cious, and which must naturally vary according to the
acuteness of the struggle of classes and to the general
political conditions.
'In case war should break out notwithstanding, they
shall be bound to intervene, that it may be brought to
a speedy end, and to employ all their forces for utilising
the economical and political crisis created by the war,
in order to rouse the masses of the people and to hasten
the downfall of the predominance of the capitalist class.
' 'For the proper execution of these measures the
Congress directs the Bureau, in the event of a war
menace, to take immediate steps to bring about an im-
mediate agreement among the Labour parties of the
countries affected for united action to prevent the
threatened war.'
Qt is easy now to make comment upon the inherent s
ineffectiveness of these proposals. They were, however, *
the outcome of years of deliberation by men of various
nationalities who were sincerely desirous of two things,
the abolition of war and the establishment of Socialism,
and the real secret of their inutility may, perhaps, be
found in the fatalism expressed in the preamble, which
declared that "war will only cease with the disappear-
299
J. KEIR HARDIE
ance of capitalist production." A belief in the inevit-
ability of war is not a good foundation upon which to
build measures of prevention. These proposals relied
upon Parliamentary action to prevent war, and pre-
supposed a much greater possession of political power
on the part of Labour than has ever existed ; and they
certainly did not contemplate a world conflagration
involving nations that had no parliamentary institutions
whatever!;
The I.C. P. amendment proposed extra-parliamentary
action; direct action in fact, on an international scale.
It was as follows : "This Congress recommends the
affiliated Parties and Labour organisations to consider
the advisability and feasability of the general strike,
especially in industries that supply war material, as one
of the methods of preventing war, and that action be
taken on the subject at the next Congress."
The next Congress would be in 1913, and we can
now see that if in the intervening years, the preparatory
steps for enforcing this proposal had been taken, there
would yet have been time for putting its efficacy to the
test in August, 1914. In moving this amendment, the
British section believed they were making a thoroughly
practical proposal for the preservation of international
peace. Somewhere there may be in existence a verbatim
report of Hardie's speech. A very brief summary,
mainly taken from the descriptive account of the Con-
gress by Brue Glasier in the "Labour Leader," will
suffice here. { Hardie began by stating that he desired
that the position of the Socialist and Labour movement
in Britain should be understood by their foreign com-
rades. It had been much misrepresented. The British
Labour Party took a very definite stand against war.
They were not only anti-war but anti-military, which was
not quite the same thing. A standing army was an indi-
300
MILITARISM
cation that the State was founded on force. Militarism
and freedom could not exist side by side. It was a
source of great pleasure to him to find that the Socialists
of Denmark and Norway were not only against large
expenditure in armaments, but were opposed to arma-
ments altogether and had moved for their complete
abolition. There was, he declared, a big place in history
for the nation which has the courage and faith to disarm
itself. No country, not even despotic Russia, would
dare to attack an unarmed nation. Dealing with the
argument used in the capitalist press for a large navy,
he said that the refusal of the Hague Conference, in
obedience to the British Government, to abolish the
capture of merchandise at sea, did much to excuse,
though it might not justify, that argument. He dis-
sociated the British movement from the articles by
Blatchford and Hyndman in the capitalist press, and in
"Justice" and the "Clarion." He believed that the
S.D.P. delegates would endorse his statement that on
this question these men spoke only for themselves, and
that every section of the Socialist movement in Britain
disapproved of their utterances and their conduct in
taking sides with the capitalist press. Ledebour, without
knowing the 'difference between the German and the
British Budget, had attacked the British Labour Party
for voting for taxation, and Hardie replied. To vote
for the rejection of the entire Budget, would be
to vote against the provision of money for Old
Age Pensions, against the payment of wages for
the servants of the State, and against every social
undertaking of the State. The I.L.P. in Britain
were arranging for a great campaign against war.
Jaures and Vandervelde were coming to speak, and he
hoped that Ledebour himself or some other German
comrade would come also. Turning to his own amend-
301
J. KEIR HARDIE
ment, he offered to Ledebour (the mover of the
official resolution) to withdraw the addition, provided
he would agree to the Bureau circulating a paragraph
embodying the amendment. The French, American and
South German delegates on the Commission agreed to
support that, but Ledebour, on behalf of the Germans,
declined. It was true that a general strike against war
could only come by the international agreement of the
workers. But did they not know that the miners at their
recent International Conference had actually agreed
that this very question should be referred to their
Executive in order that it might be considered at their
next Conference. The miners alone could prevent war
by withholding supplies. We must give the workers a
great lead. He did not expect that the workers were at
present ready to strike against war. But they never
would be ready to do so unless we helped to educate
them by pointing out to them their duty.
The value, for us, of this utterance, even abbreviated,
lies in the fact that it is illuminative. It throws light on
the mental attitudes on both sides in the discussion, and
we are forced to the conclusion that all these men were
actuated by the highest motives and were sincerely
striving to find a solution for the problems confronting
humanity. The Germans would not mislead the Con-
gress by voting for a resolution which they thought
impracticable. Their Marxian theories of economic deter-
minism made it easy for the Imperialist and Militarist
forces to pursue their policy. They were like the rabbit
paralysed by the serpent, but they honourably told the
Congress that if a war came they did not believe that
a general strike could be made to stop it. The "Time
Forces" were against the International leaders.
Capitalism and Imperialism were developing faster
than International Socialism and proletarian power.
302
CHRISTIANITY
On this question it was not found necessary to divide
the Congress. The resolution was carried on the
understanding that the amendment should be considered
by the International Socialist Bureau, the German
section agreeing to this.
|_This was not Hardie's only visit to the Continent
during this year. In May, he had been to Lille, in France,
as chief speaker in a propaganda crusade organised by
the National Council of the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon
and the Brotherhood movements of Great Britain. To
some scoffers the idea of British Nonconformists teaching
continental workers how to spend pleasant Sunday after-
noons was not without its humour; but that aspect did
not appeal to Hardie. To him it was another oppor-
tunity for preaching Socialism and international
goodwill, and he made full use of it. His name and
fame brought together a great assemblage of working
folk, and besides speaking in the great hall of L'Union
de Lille, he had to address an overflow meeting of some
six thousand in the Square, delivering an oration which,
by its religious fervour and idealism, made him more
than ever a man of mystery to the scientific Socialists
who found in the materialist conception of history the
only key to the explanation of every problem. What
kind of a Socialist could he be who said, "Behind nature
there is a Power, unseen but felt. Beyond death there
is a Something, else were life on earth a mere wast age, "
and who declared, "I myself have found in the Christian-
ity of Christ the inspiration which first of all drove me
into the movement and has carried me on in it. ' ' Yet this
man was an advocate of the general strike. They could
not understand him. Nor could the commercialised pro-
fessors of Christianity. To both he was an enigma ~ j
There was nothing enigmatical, however, about his
action a few weeks later, when, in the House of Com-
303
J. KEIR HARDIE
mons, he was attacking the Home Secretary and the War
Minister for having sent police and military into Wales
during a miners' strike. This dispute had originated in
the Rhondda Valley, where 11,000 miners had come
out on strike, demanding an equalisation of wages with
other collieries demanding, in fact, a minimum wage.
There had been some disturbance at Tonypandy, due,
as Hardie alleged, to the importation of police from out-
side the district. In addition to the imported police,
military had been sent into the district, and also
to Aberaman, which was in Hardie's constituency,
where he maintained there had not been even a
semblance of riot or disturbance. In the strike
district the police had interfered to prevent picketing,
which he contended was still lawful, and, in fact,
he charged Mr. Haldane and Mr. Churchill with
using the forces at their disposal to protect blacklegs
and help the masters against the men. In proof of his
assertion that the rioting was due to outside influence,
he pointed out that at Pen-y-craig, where there were no
imported police, there had been no rioting, though there
had been picketing and demonstrations of the kind com-
mon to a labour dispute. There was not even a window
broken in this district. In raising this matter in the
House, Hardie was, of course, supported by the Parlia-
mentary Labour Party, and also by his Liberal colleague
in the representation of Merthyr, Mr. Edgar Jones. A
debate ensued, followed by a division, the only effect
of which was to emphasise the fact that, in a quarrel
. between labour and capital, Liberals and Tories were
''* united on the side of capital. From Hardie's point of
view this was worth while. Every time this was demon-
strated, the need for Labour representation was also
demonstrated. This might not be the class war according
to the Marxists, nor brotherly love according to
304
GENERAL ELECTION
the churches; but it was one of the roads to Socialism
according to Hardie. He might, with some truth, have
claimed that he was a better Marxist and a better
Christian than either of therrLj
About this time he produced a scheme for the starting
of a Socialist daily newspaper, the need for which had
long been recognised, and had so far proceeded with his
plans as to justify him in the hope that the first number
would appear on May ist of the following year. Another
General Election, however, intervened, absorbing all
the energy and spare cash of the Party, and later there
emerged from the Labour Party a more ambitious, though
not, in the opinion of the present writer, a more useful,
scheme. The ''Daily Citizen" was the outcome.
Night after night in Parliament he continued question-
ing and compelling discussion on the state of matters in
South Wales, always producing fresh evidence in proof
of the barbarous methods of the police authorities, and
demanding an impartial inquiry into the whole circum-
stances of the dispute, until in the first week in December
there came the General Election, and the transference
of his activities to the actual scene of industrial strife.
The strike was still proceeding. There was much dis-
tress in the Rhondda and in parts of the Merthyr con-
stituency, and, in view of the action of the Government
in the dispute, the Liberals did not dare to put up a
candidate against him. There was a Unionist candidate,
but without even a hope of success, and for Hardie the
result was never in doubt. He polled 11,507 votes, and
his majority was 6,230. It was the end. He did not
know, nor could he nor anyone know, that he had fought
his last election contest, and that that night he had heard
for the last time the crowds hail him victor. His death
was to cause the next Merthyr fight. And by that time
Merthyr had changed; the whole world had changed.
305
J. KEIR HARDIE
The calamity which he dreaded, and which he fought so
hard to avert, had come to pass. It was at least in
keeping with his life that his last political campaign
amongst the Merthyr miners should have had for its
first and immediate issue the well-being of his class
and craft.
In the outcome of this election the Labour Party more
than regained its position. It went back to Parliament
forty-two in number. Of these, eight were I.L.P.
nominees, the most outstanding amongst the newcomers
being George Lansbury and Tom Richardson; the
latter's return as an I.L.P. nominee being a significant
sign of the advance towards Socialism on the part of the
North of England miners.
The Liberal and Tory Parties had exactly two hundred
and seventy-two members each. The Liberal Govern-
ment was therefore dependent for its continuance in
office upon the Irish Party and the Labour Party. In
these circumstances, had it not been that Liberal and
Tory were alike Imperialist, there might have been no
war in 1914.
It is strange to reflect that during the whole of this
General Election the subject of war was never men-
tioned. Foreign policy was never mentioned. Arma-
ments were never mentioned. Yet a Government was
elected that took this country into the most terrible war
the world has ever seen. As a decoy-duck Lloyd George
was a success. He attracted the fire that should have
been directed against Grey and Haldane and the British
war-lords. Only the Socialists were alive to the impend-
ing danger. During November, the I.L.P. had carried
through a strenuous anti-militarist campaign, holding
big meetings in all the large centres of population, and
in December, right in the middle of the election, and
without any pre-arranged connection therewith, there
306
Citvright
J. KEIR HARDIE, 1910
INTERNATIONALISM
took place in the Albert Hall, London, the great Inter-
national Socialist Demonstration organised by the
I.L.P. with the view of strengthening the solidarity of
Labour in all countries against war. At this meeting
Hardie was in the chair. France was represented by
Jaures; Germany by Molkenbuhr; Belgium by Vander-
velde; Great Britain by MacDonald and Anderson;
America by Walter T. Mills. The talk was all of peace
and goodwill, and of the power of organised labour to
preserve Europe from the scourge of war. Jaures, the
greatest of Socialist orators, spoke like one inspired
Jaures, marked out as one of the war's earliest victims;
yet happier was he than Hardie, for he was to
fall quickly and suddenly and to be spared from behold-
ing the full international collapse and the betrayals
that followed it.
At least, they were there, the Socialists of France,
Germany, Belgium, Britain, the nations that were, even
then, being drawn into the whirlpool of blood ; they were
there, these Socialists, doing what could be done to
prevent the catastrophe. But the people never heard
them. The people were singing the "Land Song."
They were listening to Lloyd George and "waiting and
seeing," or rather, waiting and not seeing, what Mr.
Asquith was going to give them ; and the second General
Election of 1910 ended like the first, in the achievement
of nothing, except the blindfolding of the British
people and the election of a House of Commons with
neither political principle nor foresight.
Hardly had the election cries subsided, when there
came the news in the last week of the year of
another great mining disaster, this time in Lancashire
at the Hulton collieries, known as the Pretoria Pit
disaster. Hardie's last task for the year was to
write an article for the "Labour Leader," similar to so
307
J. KEIR HARDIE
many he had written in the course of his life, protesting
against the callous indifference of the Government and
all in authority to the continued needless sacrifice
of the lives of the miners. Only those in close
daily intercourse with him knew how these recurring
calamities filled him with wrath almost to blasphemy.
There was the usual coroner's inquest, inculpating
nobody. There was the usual inquiry, followed by recom-
mendations six months later, but valueless without Home
Office compulsory powers. We do not require to remind
ourselves that Parliament was dominated by the vested
interests.
During all this time the Rhondda strike continued
and the distjess amongst the miners and their dependents
increased.- 1911, it will be remembered, was a year of
industrial flpheaval almost unprecedented in its univer-
sality. In nearly every industry the workers were at
one time or other in revolt, but the outstanding disputes
were those which produced the great railway strike, and
prolonged this heartbreaking struggle in the Rhondda.
In both of these, Hardie, by sheer force of circumstances,
could not help becoming a prominent figure. His pro-
test against the intervention of the police and the military
in the Welsh dispute has already been recorded. It was
the same cause, more tragically emphasised, which
compelled the Labour Party to raise the matter of the
railway strike in Parliament. The full story of the dis-
pute need not be retold. The fundamental cause of the
quarrel was the refusal of the railway companies to
recognise the Railwaymen's Union, a refusal in which
the companies had the encouragemnt of the Govern-
ment. Even before the outbreak of hostilities, and
while negotiations were proceeding out of which a
peaceful settlement was possible, the Home Office, with
the concurrence of the War Office, two departments of
308
INDUSTRIAL STRIFE
which Mr. Churchill and Mr. Haldane were the chiefs,
had guaranteed to the companies the use of the forces
of the Crown, and did actually implement their promise
to such an extent that at one time it was estimated that
every available soldier on home service was held ready
for action. The result was what might have been
expected. The railway directors stiffened their backs.
The strike took place. Non-union blacklegs were given
military protection. Men were shot down, one fatally
at Liverpool, two fatally at Llanelly in Wales. In both
cases the victims were wholly unconnected with the
dispute.
'^The fact of the Government's preliminary guarantee
to the companies was well established in the course of
the parliamentary discussions, and the manner of their
interpretation of their powers by the military was clearly
illustrated by the evidence at the Llanelly inquest given
by Major Stewart, who repudiated the suggestion that
blank cartridges were fired, and declared that he had
instructions from the War Office, empowering him to
fire without orders from the magistrates : a state of
matters which meant in effect, that a condition of martial
law had been established without the sanction of
Parliament, but with the sanction of a Liberal Govern-
ment, or, in any event, of a Liberal War Minister.
\The strike was settled ultimately by the full recog-
nition of the Union and the appointment of a Royal
Commission to inquire into the railwaymen's grievances.
In the course of the discussion on the settlement, Mr.
Lloyd George made a violent attack on Hardi-e for
having stated that the Government had, while granting
the aid of the military, made no attempt to bring pressure
upon the directors to meet the men. Hardie had made
this statement, referring to a declaration of the Prime
Minister previous to the strike, but Mr. George, with
v 309
J. KEIR BARDIE
his customary slim dishonesty, sought to make it appear
as if Hardie's remark applied to a subsequent stage,
when the Government had belatedly endeavoured to
bring the parties together. Hardie, of course, held to
his original statement, the truthfulness of which was
testified to by the following resolution passed by the
Railwaymen's Joint Executive : "This Joint Executive
body repudiates the unwarrantable attack by the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer upon Mr. Keir Hardie for using
arguments which each of the forty representatives
present at the Board of Trade feels were quite justi-
fiable after the language and attitude of the Prime
Minister. We further extend the best thanks of the Joint
Executive, representing all railway workers, to Mr. Keir
Hardie and the Labour Party for their splendid service
in helping, both to bring the men out, and get them back
again when the truce was called."
i Another Labour dispute in which Hardie was very
cfirectly interested, and in which he rendered invaluable
service to the workers concerned, was that which occurred
at the Dowlais Ironworks in his own constituency. This
dispute had features in common both with that of the
Rhondda miners and the railwaymen. It was a demand
to have the rates of pay equalised with those paid by
other firms in the same industry, and it was also a demand
for recognition of Trade Unionism. On both points the
men won after a protracted struggle, but not before
Hardie in Parliament had brought such pressure to bear
upon the Government for the enforcement of the Fair
Wages' Clause in Government contracts that the firm,
Guest. Keen and Nettlefold, Ltd., were compelled to
concede the demands rather than lose their contracts
with the Government of India and with other Depart-
ments. This was the kind of object lesson in the value
of Labour representation which even the most non-
310
THE BRINK OF WAR
political worker could appreciate, and the part played
by Hardie enhanced his already very great popularity
with his working-class constituents. Incidentally also
it illustrated Hardie's remarkable capacity for assimil-
ating knowledge in connection with other forms of
industry than that in which he was himself expert. He
showed himself able to discuss details and technicalities
in connection with the steel and iron trade as familiarly
as if he had been bred to the 1 forge instead of the coal-
face. This adaptability applies to every other branch
of industry in connection with which he had a case to
uphold or defend. He was very thorough, and always
made sure of his facts.
It will be perceived that during the whole of this
session his time was spent alternating between the
House of Commons and South Wales, and, as we shall
see, in the former place there were other things than
industrial strikes demanding attention. Meantime it
should be noted that he was writing assiduously, and, in
addition to occasional articles in the "Labour Leader"
and other papers, was supplying two or three columns
weekly to the "Merthyr Pioneer," a weekly paper which
the local I.L.P. brought into existence in March of this
year. In this journal he found once again the medium
for the expression not merely of his opinions, but of
his personality which had been the chief characteristic
of the "Labour Leader" in its early days. Almost
till the day of his death he made use of the "Pioneer"
in this way.
With all this industrial strife and turmoil, and with
an Insurance Bill and a House of Lords' Veto Bill to
talk about, it is not surprising that the general body of
the people had neither eyes nor ears for foreign affairs,
and were not aware that the nation had been brought
almost to the brink of war, though there were whispers
J. KEIR HARDIE
that the possibility of the troops being required
for service abroad had hastened the railway strike
settlement.
The crisis over Morocco arising out of the rival inter-
ests of French and German financiers in that country,
in which the influence of the British Government
was manifested on the side of France, took place in
June, but it was the end of November before, on the
Foreign Office vote, a parliamentary statement could
be extracted from Sir Edward Grey on a question which
had so nearly involved the country in war. In the debate
which followed, Ramsay MacDonald pointed out that it
was the Socialist Party in the German Reichstag whose
influence had prevailed upon the German Government
to refrain from an immediate retort to Lloyd George's
provocative Mansion House speech, and had thereby in
all probability preserved the peace of Europe. Mac-
Donald rejoiced that he belonged to a Party which was
in this country the equivalent of the German Social
Democratic Party in its efforts to avert international war.
Hardie, in the same debate, spoke with grave sarcasm
of the self-confessed puerility of high State officials.
"He did not know how the rest of the House felt, but
when the Foreign Secretary was telling them how on
one occasion the German Ambassador called upon him,
and Sir Edward Grey asked for some explanation about
the presence of the German warships at Agadir, the Ger-
man Ambassador replied, 'I shall not tell anything
about Agadir until you have explained Lloyd George's
speech/ and the Foreign Secretary replied, 'I shall
not explain Lloyd George's speech until you have told
us about the presence of the warship at Agadir' he
could not help feeling that two statesmen of international
repute were behaving like school children. Yet those
were the men whom the two countries concerned were
312
THE BRINK OF WAR
asked to trust implicitly with the control of foreign
affairs."
In this same speech he went to the root of the matter.
"Let them take the whole of the agreements concluded
during the last five or six years between this country and
other countries, about Egypt, about Morocco, and about
Persia, and they would see what we were concerned with
was not the promotion of the liberties of the peoples of
those countries, was not the protection of the honour of
the people of this country, but the protection of profits
and dividends."
The situation, both in Morocco and Egypt, as it
appeared to the I.L.P. leaders, and to other thoughtful,
peace-loving people was fraught with peril, not only to
this country, but to the whole of Europe.
We may well regret that this debate was not allowed
in June instead of in November. That it was not, shows
that the Foreign Office had definitely made up its mind
to conceal events from Parliament and hoodwink it
should a crisis arise.
These casual extracts from the many utterances of
MacDonald and Hardie, however, are placed here to
show that for the ultimate catastrophe, they, and those
for whom they spoke, were free from responsibility.
That in the midst of all their other work, in Parliament
and in the country, they should have been so vigilantly
watchful in a sphere of politics to which the people in
general were indifferent, was due, of course, to that belief
in the international unity of interests which is inherent in
the very spirit of the Socialist movement. They also
knew far more than most Members of Parliament, and
were better able to see what was coming and how to
avert it.
MacDonald, at this very time, was himself passing
through the Vale of Sorrow, the death of Mrs. Mac-
J. KEIR HARDIE
Donald in the previous September having bereft him of
a companionship which could never be replaced, and
which had been invaluable to the Socialist movement.
These last years of Keir Hardie's life for we are
now nearing the end are very difficult to describe in
such a way as to make vivid the environment, political,
social and intellectual, which encompassed him. These
years are so near to us in time and so unripened as to
their harvest, that it seems like writing about current
events, and yet they are separated from us by an inter-
vening history so immeasurable in its effects, that they
appear to belong to almost another epoch than ours. To
recover the social and political atmosphere, to recon-
struct the conditions, to appreciate the motives by which
people were actuated in those days seem well nigh
impossible. Yet that is what we must do if we are to
have any conception of what those closing years were
to Keir Hardie. We must see the world as it appeared
to him in those days. How many of us, for example,
can recollect or revisualise what was happening in 1912,
much less recall what we were thinking about at that
time.
In 1912, it will be remembered, occurred the great
tTonal miners' strike, which resulted in legalising, for
the first time, the principle of a minimum wage for
miners. 1912 was the year of the bitterly fought London
dock strike, in which the workers were defeated,
humiliated and actually starved into submission, with
Mr. Tillett, the dockers' leader, praying theatrically on
Tower Hill that God might strike Lord Devonport
dead; the same Lord Devonport with whom, and with
whose class, Mr. Tillett was in enthusiastic accord only
two years later. 1912 was the year in which Tom Mann,
Fred Crowley and Guy Bowman were imprisoned for
advising soldiers not to shoot their fellow-workers on
3H
THE BRINK OF WAR
strike, little thinking how near was the time when
workers would be shooting workers on a scale unimagin-
able to those courageous protesters against working-
class fratricide. 1912 was the year when there were
hundreds of women in prison, hunger-striking and
enduring the tortures of forcible feeding and unable, of
course, to foresee how soon political right, withheld from
them when claimed on grounds of justice, would be
thrown to them as a bribe, or as a reward for war ser-
vice the very kind of service for which they were said
to be unfit. 1912 was the year of the Irish Home Rule
Act which never became operative. It was also the year
in which Cabinet Ministers encouraged, and to some
extent organised, rebellion in the North of Ireland, and
when Mr. Bonar Law declared, blind to the possibility
that South of Ireland rebels^ would hearken to those
brave words and act upon them, "I can imagine -no
length of resistance to which Ulster will go which I
shall not be ready to support." It was thus the memor-
able year when the leaders of the Unionist Party
declared, and carried their Party with them in making
their declaration, that a class which finds itself outvoted
in Parliament may resort to arms and revolution to undo
what was done through the ballot box. This was the
year of the Unemployment Insurance Bill giving legis-
lative recognition to the State's liability for the condi-
tion of the people. 1912 was the year in which the I.L.P.
and the Fabians joined forces in a great "War against
Poverty" campaign demanding the establishment of a
minimum standard of life, and submitting proposals for
the achievement of that purpose.
f We have only to mention these movements and events
ta understand what would be the attitude of Keir Hardie
towards each and all of them. His principles were
fixed, his record was open. By his past conduct you
315
J. KEIR HARDIE
could always tell what his present or future conduct
would be in any given set of circumstances. In much
ythat was happening in the industrial world he could see
the outcome of his own past labours. The national
strike of miners : what was it but the outward and
visible sign of that unity in the coal industry which he
had advocated as far back as 1886 when he became the
first Secretary of the Scottish Miners 5 Federation? The
Insurance Bill : what was it but one of the fruits of his
long years of agitation in and out of Parliament on
behalf of the unemployed ? It was not what he wanted.
It was not the "right to work." He described it as a
slipshod measure and sarcastically commented that its
beneficiaries would still have plenty of opportunity for
the cultivation of habits of thrift; but makeshift though
it was, it was better than nothing. In essence, its second
part was an admission of the workless man's right to
live, and it would not have been there but for Keir
Hardie.
For British Socialists the time was one of high hopes,
alternating with almost paralysing fears. The hopes lay
in the evidences of the growing solidarity of organised
labour; the fears had their source in the ever-present
danger of an outbreak of war in Europe which would
overwhelm all plans for human betterment. In Hardie's
mind, on the whole, the hopes overbalanced the fears.
In the case of the Morocco crisis, war had been arrested.
It might be so again and again until the sheer stupidity
of having recourse to such a method of settling disputes
would become universally recognised and the means
of preventing it by international action would be
strengthened. He was naturally an optimist and fain
to persuade himself that the power of international
Socialism and the common sense of humanity would be
stronger than the Imperialist and capitalist forces
3*6
THE BRINK OF WAR
making for war, It was well for him at this time to be
able to cherish, even doubtfully, such a faith. Other-
wise he would haye had little zest in life during these
remaining years^Unlike some other Socialists, he could
find no compensating comfort in the theory that a
European war, with all its evils, would at least precipi-
tate revolution. For him, the possible fruits of a revo-
lution were not worth the terrible price that would have
to be paid for them. He had always believed, and still
believed, that Socialism could be ushered in without
violent and bloody revolution. That was why he was in
Parliament. That was why he favoured the general
strike. That was why he strove to destroy the militarist
idea in association with the Socialist movement and
opposed resolutely all "citizen army" proposals. For
him, a war-engendered revolution was no gateway to any
promised land. Though he knew well what kind of war
the Great War would be, if it came, he refused to admit
that it was inevitable, and in this frame of mind he went
on with his work. ""7
This year, much to the satisfaction of Hardie and his
South Wales supporters, the I.L.P. Annual Conference
was held at Merthyr, the object being to mark the
general movement's appreciation of the stalwarts who,
in the darkest hour of the Independent Labour Party had
sent its leader to Parliament and had steadfastly stood
by him ever since. The chief subject of debate at the
Conference was Parliamentary policy, involving the
vexed question which had troubled the movement ever
since the formation of the Parliamentary Labour Party,
as to whether that Party, and especially the I.L.P. mem-
bers of it, should vote on every question on its merits,
or should be guided by the general political exigencies
which the Party had to face from time to time. The
Latter policy was endorsed by the Conference, Hardie
3 '7
J. KEIR HARDIE
speaking in support of it; but as a matter of fact, on
this occasion the Conference itself was a secondary
function, compared with the public manifestations of
Socialist feeling in the constituency and personal
attachment to Hardie. The local comrades were proud
of their Member, and he was proud of them. Francis,
Davies, Morris, Barr, Stonelake, and all the others who
had done the spade-work and the fighting, took pride-
as they were well entitled to do in their past achieve-
ments, and were full of confidence for the future. He
would have taken great risks who would have suggested
that anything could ever happen to dim the popularity
of their hero in Merthyr Tydvil. To their credit and
honour these men all stood firm when the hour of trial
came. They came through the fire like fine gold. At
that moment such a trial seemed so far off as to be
impossible. Yet it was near at hand.
During the parliamentary session he took his full
share of the work, and with George Lansbury was
specially active in protesting against the vindictive
treatment of the suffragist women in prison, whilst as
usual he was also very much in evidence on the propa-
ganda platform, and in various ways showed himself to
be full of life and vigour, i^ln the early autumn,
preparatory to going to America for an eight weeks'
tour in support of Eugene Debs's candidature for the
Presidency Jhe spent a short holiday in Arran with his
wife and daughter.
A rhyming note which he sent from there in reply to
some birthday congratulation in verse reveals him as
being in good health and spirits.
"Dear Comrade, if you flatter so,
You'll make an old man vaunty :
I'm six and fifty years, 'tis true,
And much have had to daunt me.
AMERICA
"But what of that? My life's been blest,
With health and faith abiding;
I've never sought the rich man's smile,
I've never shirked a hiding.
"I've tried to do my duty to
My conscience and my neighbour,
Regardless of the gain or loss
Involved in the endeavour.
"A happy home, a loving wife,
An I.L.P. fu' healthy;
I wadna' swap my lot in life
Wi' any o' the wealthy."
" Keir. Arran, Aug. i5th, 1912."
Mere holiday jingle, of course, and meant only for
Tom Mackley of Woolwich, who had sent the birthday
epistle, but indicating that the agitator "off the chain"
was enjoying himself.
The American tour, like Debs's candidature itself,
was simply Socialist propaganda. He addressed forty-
four meetings, including four in Canada. He was well
received everywhere, and well reported by the American
press. The enthusiasm which he aroused in such places
as Chicago, Pittsburg and Indianapolis must be taken
as a tribute to his personality, for he was no platform
"spell-binder" such as American audiences are said to
be fond of. He had never aspired to the reputation of
being anu orator. At Chicago he reminded his audience
of this.; "Those who know me best are aware that I am
never much of an orator. If I have any reputation at
all it is not that of a talker, but it is rather this : that
during the thirty odd years that I have been out in the
open for the class to which I belong, whether in Parlia-
ment or out of Parliament, I Jiave stood by that class
through good report and ill"^J
A good deal depends on what is meant by oratory.
319
J. KEIR HARDIE
Hardie could not play upon the emotions of an audience
by means of voice modulations and inflections and
dramatic gestures, but he could, nevertheless, sometimes
set the heart of his hearers beating in perfect tune with
that of his own. He was guided by no rules of elocution
except that which enjoins clear enunciation. His sen-
tences nearly always ended on a rising note, which in
an insincere speaker would have sounded like querul-
ousness, but from his had the effect of intense earnest-
ness. When closing a speech on a note of passionate
appeal the last word of the last sentence would ring out
like the sound of a trumpet, and call his auditors
involuntarily to their feet ; they knew not why except that
they had to get up and cheer. For lucidity in definition
and explanation of principles in oral speech he was
unrivalled. He was never obscure. You always knew
what he meant. Take, for example, the following
reference to the State in this same Chicago speech ("The
syndicalist starts from the assumption that the State is
a capitalist institution. The State, however, is nothing
of the sort. At the present time every State in the world,
and every kingdom in the world, is capitalist. Why
is that so? Because the workers elect the capitalist
class to govern the State. The State its'elf is neither
capitalist nor anti-capitalist. The State is simply a good
old donkey that goes the way its driver wants it to go.
When the capitalists rule, of course, the State serves
the capitalists. When the workers get sense enough to
stop sending capitalists, and send Socialists drawn from
their own ranks, to represent them, then the State
becomes your servant and not the servant of the
capitalists."
He sent home, as was his custom, a series of articles
descriptive of industrial and social conditions in
America, very valuable at the time, but not so interesting
320
AMERICA
for us now as the accounts of his meetings with old
friends from the home country. At every stage of his
journeyings they seemed to have gathered round him.
His tour took him through many of the coal-mining dis-
tricts, and we hear of social evenings with comrades of
his youth now, like himself, growing grey, but fain to
shake hands and be merry with him for auld lang syne.
We hear of "Hardie singing 'Bonnie Mary o' Argyle'
and 'Robin Tamson's Smiddy,'" and of "big Bob Mac-
beth in The Battle of Stirling Brig/ " and of "Barney
Reilly dancing an Irish jig with as clean and light a step
as he did thirty years ago in the 'Quarter."
This was Keir Hardie as the party politicians and
press interviewers never knew him, but as he was known
in hundreds of I.L.P. households throughout Great
Britain and also to the delegates at I.L.P. conferences
in the social hours when the day's work was done and the
controversies forgotten. On such occasion, to look upon
Keir Hardie and Bruce Glasier letting themselves go
in a foursome reel was, as the Scotch phrase has it, "a
sicht for sair een." This, his last American trip, seems
to have given him very great pleasure, a fact the know-
ledge of which has a measure of consolation for some
of us who know what time and fate had in store
for him.
Hardly had he arrived home when the Party was
called upon to face the troubles for international
Socialism created by the war in the Balkans. A special
international Congress had been summoned to meet at
Basle. The separate Balkan States had united against
Turkey, and there was very great danger that the war
would not be confined to the Near East and that the
much dreaded European conflagration would break out.
So imminent was this possibility that the International
Socialist Bureau had already cancelled the arrange-
321
J. KEIR HARDIE
ments for the 1913 Congress due to take place in Vienna.
The contiguity of Austria to the theatre of war, and the
ambitions of its rulers and diplomats and its interests in
the balance of power in the Balkans, made it seem certain
that, if the struggle were prolonged, Austria would
speedily be involved and would drag the others in ajso.
Europe was again on the edge of the precipice. I So,
when the Congress had to be postponed till 1914, it
was decided to call immediately an emergency Congress
in Switzerland. We know what happened in 1914, and
why it came about that this at Basle was the very Jast
Congress before the break-up of the International, j It
should be noted that the British members of the Inter-
national Socialist Bureau were strongly opposed to the
postponement of the 1913 Congress and were alone in
this opposition. Who can tell but that if it had 'met, it
might have been able to radiate sufficient moral force
to prevent the calamity of the following year? To be
wise after the event is, of course, easy, and these post-
war conjectures may seem futile; yet it is natural for us
to regret what seems a lost opportunity for a last great
effort for the prevention of the world-war.
At the Basle Congress, twenty-three countries were
represented by five hundred and fifty-five delegates,
Great Britain sending thirteen. By the time the Con-
gress met, the Balkan States had effectually defeated
Turkey and an armistice had been declared with the
Balkan League holding the mastery of the situation.
This had not lessened the danger of war in Central
Europe. Not only was there the likelihood that in the
settlement the Great Powers would intervene and come
into collision with each other, but there was also the
danger, which realised itself only too speedily, that the
victorious Balkan States would turn and rend each
other. The actors on the Balkan stage were too much
322
THE BASLE CONGRESS
puppets controlled by the rival Powers who plotted,
bribed and egged on from behind the scenes.
The Basle Congress was a magnificently impressive
International Socialist demonstration against war; but
that was all it could be. It drafted and issued a mani-
festo to the Socialists of all the countries represented,
defining what measures they might take for the preserva-
tion of peace. This manifesto, the last issued by any
authoritative International Congress, might well be
republished. It sets forth in vivid detail the conditions
and international relationships out of which the .Great
War eventuated, conditions and relationships which, if
re-established, whatever the grouping of the different
interests may be, must produce the same evil results.
There was deep seriousness at this Congress, and,
at the great peace demonstration in the Cathedral, high
and noble utterances by Bebel, Jaures, Adler, Hardie
and other international representative men. It was an
historic Congress, in a sense of which none who partici-
pated could have any knowledge. None of them could
know that this was the last. Nor could Bebel and Hardie
know that this was their final meeting. But so it was,
Bebel, now in his seventy-third year, had only a few
more months of life, and happily did not see his beloved
German Social Democratic Party first voting war credits
and then torn to pieces. Hardie looked almost as
venerable as Bebel, but had greater vigour. Basle
wound up an old generation, ended an old chapter, was
the close of many hopes.
The Rev. James Wallace of Glasgow, who was one
of the British delegates, has preserved for us a very
pleasant glimpse of Hardie in the streets of Basle.
"After the excitement of the public meeting," says Mr.
Wallace, "I accompanied the tribune of the people on a
tour to see the 'uncos' of Basle, and, as in Bunyan's
323
J. KEIR HARDIE
'Pilgrim's Progress' Hopeful had to fall back on
Christian to translate the writing on a pillar 'for he was
learned/ so I proved of service to Keir Hardie in the
case of French or German sentences and specially by
enabling him with some ease to make a purchase of a
keepsake for Mrs. Hardie in a small jeweller's shop.
Blessing on the honest Swiss saleswoman whose shop
seemed so fragrant with honesty that we both felt com-
pletely at home, and the desire for gain or profit was
simply nowhere with her compared with the full play of
human kindliness and good feeling. Whether she recol-
lects the two Scotsmen or no, I cannot tell, but to the
two Scotsmen her shop with its fragrant honesty was a
green spot in our memory. As we passed along the
pavements we admired the noble street architecture of
the old city, but Keir Hardie was also much interested
in all the different kinds of dogs, large or small, that
crossed our paths. The most contemptible 'tykes'
attracted the great man's notice. During the whole
course of our peregrinations working men broke into
smiles at the sight of Keir Hardie, and kept him very
busy pulling off his cap in reply to their salutations,
while an Egyptian, with a profile exactly reproducing
the features of his ancestors on the monuments of Luxor
four thousand years ago, approached us with all eager-
ness to complain of the high-handed acts of British
officials in the land of the Pharaohs. Keir Hardie
listened to him very sympathetically and offered to air
his complaint in Parliament; but so far as I could judge
there was a want of definiteness about his statements, as
if they were rather the expression of a general restive-
ness of his country under the regime of Britain, and
might even be fomented by German intrigue. Very
naturally our footsteps gravitated towards the Art
Gallery of Basle. 'There's Jaures,' said Keir Hardie,
324
THE BASLE CONGRESS
and went forward to shake the great Frenchman's hand.
A man more unlike the typical Frenchman as depicted
in our comic papers it would be impossible to find.
Indeed, take a shrewd farmer from the Ayr or Lanark
market, and there you have a Jaures. It was the last
meeting of these two great men on earth. What sphere
have they now for the exercise of their beautiful ener-
gies ? 'We are such stuff as dreams are made of.' ' Mr.
Wallace was wrong. Hardie and Jaures were to meet
again before the end.
And so the year 1912 drew towards its close, with
the war-clouds hanging dark and threatening over the
nations, and the minds of all Socialists full of fore-
boding. "The moment is critical," wrote Hardie, "and
European war will almost certainly lead to European
revolution, the end of which no man can foresee"; yet
was he still an optimist. "It was a great gathering," he
summed up, speaking of the Basle Congress, "and full
of significance for the future of our race. For those
gathered there represented not so many nationalities,
but the disinherited of all lands. These have now no
country : they are the mob, the proletariat, the oppressed.
These are the ties that bind them. The International
is uniting them in their fight against bondage." He was
great of heart, and he needed to be.
w 325
J
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SOUTH AFRICA AND IRELAND COMING OF AGE
CONFERENCE THE WORLD CONFLICT
IT is not easy to describe Keir Hardie's activities
during the succeeding eighteen months of turmoil.
So many different events, political, industrial and
international, were happening concurrently, in all of
which he was interested and implicated. Perhaps the
simplest way will be to take the more outstanding of
these events in their chronological order.
At the I.L.P. Annual Conference held at Manchester,
in March, he accepted once more the position of Chair-
man of the Party, the chief reason for his election being
that he, as founder of the I.L.P., might preside at the
"Coming of Age" Conference and celebrations to take
place the following year at Bradford. His remarks in
accepting the honour were brief and characteristic.
"Twenty years ago I was elected to the Chairmanship.
I then said I accepted the office reluctantly. I say the
same thing to-day. Nature never intended me to be a
leader. I find myself happier among the rank and file.
But one thing let us determine. During the next twelve
months we are all going to be young men in a hurry."
In Parliament a fortnight later, Hardie found himself
almost in the position which he had occupied at the
beginning of his parliamentary career. He stood alone,
or nearly so. The occasion was the introduction of what
was known as the Government's "Cat and Mouse" Bill,
the object of which was to enable the Home Secretary
326
WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE
to release suffragist hunger strikers when they were at
the point of death, and, when they had recovered in
health, to reimprison^hem without trial. Hardie moved
the rejection of the Bill and got only seven other
members to follow him into the lobby. 1 There was
magnanimity as well as courage in his lonely champion-
ship of the militants.
Only a few days before, these same women had not
only shouted him down, but had actually assaulted him.
Hardly by a word did he blame them. Nor did he look'"'
for gratitude from them. He opposed the Bill because
it was the right thing to do, and he opposed it with so
much vigour and persuasiveness that in the final division
before it became law, his seven supporters had increased
to fifty, a proof that he had stirred some of the parlia-
mentary guardians of liberty to a perception of the
danger of vesting such arbitrary power in the hands of
a Secretary of a Government department. So far as the
militant suffragists were concerned, he appreciated their
fighting spirit, though he deplored their lack of judgment
in the conduct of their campaign. The leaders, Mrs.
Pankhurst and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, both of whom
had suffered imprisonment, were, or had been, his per-
sonal friends. Mrs. Pankhurst had declared war on the
Labour Party because it had declined to adopt the
policy of voting against every Government measure
until the women's demands had been conceded, and, of
course, Hardie, as a member of the Labour Party, had
been included in that declaration of war, and treated,
or rather maltreated, as if he were a foe to the suffrage
movement instead of its strongest advocate.
Recent developments had added exasperation to the
sense of injustice in the minds of the women. The
Government had introduced a Reform Bill which made
no provision for votes for women, but had tacitly agreed
327,
J. KEIR HARDIE
that if amendments embodying such a provision were
carried, they would be included in the Bill. There was
a practical certainty that such amendments, proposed
by the Labour Party, would be carried; but the hopes
thus raised had been frustrated by the Speaker's ruling
that such amendments would constitute an entirely new
Bill, which would require to be introduced anew,
and the Government t had thereupon abandoned
the measure altogether. / The militant section, violent
in their methods before," Were more violent now, and
seemed more wrathful even against the Labour Party
. than against the Government, notwithstanding that the
I.L.P. Conference had pledged itself to oppose every
franchise measure which did not include women. That
very Conference the militant women had tried to wreck,
and mobbed and hustled Hardie and Snowden. .He
did not blame the women. He blamed the Government
which denied them the rights of citizenship, much in
the same way as he had held that unemployed workmen
could not be expected to conform to a system of laws
which did not guarantee to them the right to work. J In
tactics the militant suffragists were wrong : in principle
they were right. It should be said that the tactics of
violence had never been endorsed by the National
Union of Women's Suffrage Societies under which the
majority of the women were organised and which
had supported the Labour Party throughout in its
methods.
Early in the month of April, Sir Edward Grey dis-
closed that a European war had again nearly broken out
over a quarrel between Montenegro and Albania a part
of the aftermath of the previous year's fighting in the
Balkans. Only the most meagre information was vouch-
safed and no opportunity was provided for public dis-
cussion. "I suppose," commented Hardie, in his gravely
328
THE COMING WAR
satirical way "I suppose we shall be allowed to say a
word or two before war begins/' Put in the past tense,
these words are an accurate description of what actually
took place sixteen months later. Parliament was
allowed "to say a few words" before the Great War
began. Responsible Socialist leaders had certainly at
this time other matters than the franchise question to
engross their attention.
In June, he travelled further across Europe than he
had yet been, to Budapest, to attend the Annual Con-
gress of the International Women's Suffrage Alliance,
not as a delegate, but as a guest. This fact emphasises
how widely he was recognised as a friend of the cause,
some of whose advocates in his own country were throw-
ing stones at him. He found the Hungarian capital to
be a beautiful city, but a city in which democracy could
hardly draw breath. Trade Unions were tolerated as
long as they were harmless to the employers, there was a
franchise which excluded the workers from any share in
legislation or administration, and military law was
dominant over all. Reading his description, we can
realise how helpless the Socialist elements would be to
rally any anti-war force, and how the whole populace
would be rushed automatically into war when the crisis
came. Side by side with the autocratic power, he found
a certain amount of wisdom in the municipal manage-
ment which made life tolerable, and there is no indica-
tion of any premonition of the terrible ordeal which
awaited this fair city on the Danube fated to be scourged
by war, pestilence, and famine, and, later on, by the
infamous White Terror. He visited Vienna, where he
found much the s;ame conditions, and conferred with
Dr. Adler and other Socialist leaders, and in Brussels,
on the way home, with Huysmans, the subject of talk
between all these representative Socialists being, we
329
J
J. KEIR HARDIE
may be sure, the ever darkening war-cloud and the
possibility of dispelling it.
He does not seem to have derived much benefit in
health from this Continental trip, as, almost immediately
after his return, he had a temporary but rather alarming
breakdown. On the last Friday in July, Mr. and Mrs.
W. C. Anderson, on their way to an I.L.P. summer
conference at Keswick, found their leader in a railway-
carriage at Euston in a state of acute exhaustion. He
was due to speak at Whitehaven that evening, but
finding his condition so serious, Mr. Anderson sent him
home in a cab, and himself took his place at Whitehaven.
Hardie turned up two days later at Keswick looking
very pale and shaken, but assuring his friends that he
was all right. As a matter of fact he had very frequent
attacks of this kind, known only to the friends with
whom he happened to be staying. Seldom did he
allow them to prevent the fulfilment of his public
engagements.
In Parliament the following week he was, with Mr.
(5iithwaite, demanding an inquiry into the industrial
trouble which had broken out in South Africa, and
incidentally providing the British public with the finest
reliable information as to the nature and cause of that
trouble. The Rand miners had at last realised that the
conquest of South Africa had not been undertaken
primarily in their interests, and when in order to better
their working conditions they had begun to organise and
to hold public meetings, they found that the very law
which, when passed by the Boer Government, was
declared to be one of the justifications for British
aggression, was now used to prevent British labour in
South Africa from organising itself. A public meeting
in the Square at Johannesburg had been suppressed by
armed force and twenty men killed and one hundred
330
REBEL'S FUNERAL
and fifty wounded. The Governor-General, Lord
Gladstone, had allowed himself to be made the tool of
the mineowners, had given the sanction of his authority
to the outrage, and had thereby brought dishonour on
British rule in South Africa. Such, with many addi-
tional particulars of the evil conditions prevailing in
the mines, was the impeachment put forward by Outh-
waite and Hardie. The Government had practically
no defence, and an inquiry was granted, the subsequent
outcome of which is no part of this narrative. What is
noteworthy is how instinctively labour in revolt, whether
in South Africa or elsewhere, looked to Hardie for
championship. He could always be relied upon. It
almost seemed as if in this resolute, unswerving man
the working-class struggle the world over had become
personified. /
In August, Hardie, with Socialist representatives
from many lands, was called to Zurich to the funeral
of Bebel, whose place in the German Socialist move-
ment was very similar to that of Hardie himself in this
country. Jaures was absent through ill-health. The
public mourning for Bebel, as described by Hardie,
must have been deeply impressive, but more impressive
to us are Hardie's simple words : "The end came
sudden, which at seventy-three is meet and proper. In
the evening he retired to rest, apparently in his usual
health, and ere the morning he had entered upon the
rest everlasting. What now remains is but the memory
of,the mighty life, and the calm, peaceful death."
fin the first week of September he was in Dublin at
tEe invitation of the Irish Transport Workers' Federa-
tion investigating the cause of the serious disturbances
in that city, the memory of which has been dimmed by
the subsequent more terrible happenings with which
we are all too familiar. Indeed, the events of that
33 *
J. KEIR HARDIE
time outrageous though they were seem now like a
mere dress rehearsal for what was to follow. The city
was given over to "Castle" rule, administered by the
R.I.C. which was almost equivalent to being placed
under military law. As at Johannesburg, public
meetings were forcibly suppressed and lives lost in the
course of the suppression. The organiser of the
Transport Workers' Union, Jim Larkin, was arrested
on a charge of sedition, which, as Hardie pointed out,
could, if upheld, be construed to apply to the whole
of Trade Union activity. "There never was a meeting
held in connection with a strike or a Labour dispute in
which the same charge could not have held good/' This
was not the "Irish Question" as the politicians under-
stand it. It was not England versus Ireland. It was
Capital versus Labour, and was in reality an attempt on
the part of the employers, directed by W. M. Murphy,
an Irish capitalist, to destroy organised labour in
Ireland before it became too strong. In six years'
time, Larkin, a man of volcanic energy, had achieved
something like a miracle. The Irish industrial workers
were already nation-conscious. He had made them also
class-conscious, and had brought into existence a force
which, in the event of Home Rule being established,
boded ill for capitalism in Ireland. Larkin was the
leader, the inspirer, of the new movement; but there was
another quieter, brainier, but equally determined man,
James Connolly by name. These two were creating an
organisation and a spirit which was at once Nationalist
and Socialist, and a mutual instinct of self-preservation
made Dublin Castle, the army in occupation, and
Murphy, the capitalist Nationalist, join forces for the
destruction of this new phenomenon.
Hardie knew well how dangerous it was for any
British-born agitator to obtrude in Irish affairs, but
332
IRELAND
nevertheless declared it to be the duty of British Trade
Unionists to take part in the resistance to what he
described as "a conspiracy to destroy the Trade Union
movement." He protested against the Government
taking sides with the employers, and pointed out that,
at that very moment, Carson and F. E. Smith were
fomenting rebellion in the North of Ireland with
apparently the approval of Dublin Castle. From
Dublin he passed to Belfast where he addressed a
meeting under the auspices of .the I.L.P. and sought to
convince the Trade Unionists of the North that it was
their duty to make common cause with their fellow Trade
Unionists in the South and West. J
The week following he was at Jena as the fraternal
delegate from the British Labour Party to the German
Socialist Congress, his real object being as ever, to
assist, if only by the weight of a single word, in con-
solidating the International Socialist forces against
war. [jn his greetings to the Congress he restated
practically his whole Socialist and anti-militarist creed.
"In these days of international commerce, finance, art,
literature, and the increasing solidarity of the working-
class movement of the world, the rulers and statesmen
of Europe could, had they the will, abolish armies and
navies in one generation. We could at least easily have
the United States of Europe in that time, but they do not
want to. Their rule is founded on the sword, and, were
that to be abolished, the democracies of the world would
soon abolish class rule. In the Socialist parties there is
growing up a State within the State. The new State
will not be based^on force, but on economic equality and
personal liberty.^/
He does not seem to have been much impressed with
the proceedings at the German Congress, and was
disappointed that the general strike idea had not yet
333
J
J. KEIR HARDIE
been embodied in any practical proposal, whilej in the
friction between the Christian Unions and the bocial
Democratic Unions, he saw a fatal obstacle to unity at
a time when unity was the one thing needful, j He knew
from experience not so far away as Germany the evil
consequences of sectarian differences. Thus the weeks
and months passed, every day full of strife and agitation,
the year closing with a national I.L.P. campaign against
Conscription, in which, as usual, Hardie took a leading
part, and with another impressive international demon-
stration in London with Adler, Vandervelde, Jaures,
Hardie all delivering the same message, these four
standing side by side almost for the last time. The year
of the Great War was at hand.
And yet it seemed as if the danger had receded.
These distinguished foreigners were in London to
attend the meetings of the International Socialist
Bureau, the chief business of which was to arrange for
the postponed International Congress, which it was, after
all, decided could be held in Vienna. In the minds of
these men the danger of European war had, for the time
being, vanished, else they woul.d not have been arranging
for Vienna in August, 1914. When August came, Vienna
was the scene of a congress of another kind a congress
of armed men. The conscripts were then mustering and
were being marched out into Hell.
While in London the Socialist Bureau lent its influence
on behalf of the movement for Socialist unity in this
country which seemed now at last on the point of being
achieved. This, also, the war rendered impossible.
| The springtime of 1914 was a time of great satisfaction
for Keir Hardie. It brought him a sense of achievement.
The Independent Labour Party had existed for twenty-
one years. It was now a power in the land. It had
created a political Labour Party expressive of working-
334
"COMING OF AGE"
class ideals, and its principles were accepted by the
great Trade Union movement. In all this his own
personal effort was manifest. His had been the guiding
hand, not always visible, but always operating. The
influence of the I.L.P. was apparent, not only in
Parliament, but in every sphere and phase of local
government. In Town Councils, County Councils,
Parish Councils and School Boards, members of the
Independent Labour Party were at work, and the effect
of their presence was already beginning to humanise
the administrative work of these bodies. Almost
imperceptibly, a new collectivist spirit was permeating
the public life of the country, and a consciousness of
power was growing amongst the working class. In all
this the Independent Labour Party had been the driving
and the inspiring element. The very fact that it was
the mark for special attack by the vested interests was
the proof of this. Many times during those twenty-one
years the capitalist press had exulted in the appearance
of division, and had gloated over the coming disruption
which never came. It was now celebrating its "coming
of age" as a political party, and the man who presided \f
over it on the day of its birth was presiding over it now.
Keir Hardie, like the Party, had survived through abuse,
ridicule and misrepresentation. He was able, literally,
to look upon his handiwork and find that it was good.
To consolidate organised Labour and shape it into an
invincible power for the realisation of Socialism. That
was his purpose. Only a beginning had been made, but
it was a good beginning. A path had been cleared
along which others might follow?}
It was in something of this spirit that the I.L.P. met
at Bradford, the place of its birth. Congratulations came
from every Labour organisation in Britain and from
every Socialist Party in the world. From many of these
335
J. KEIR HARDIE
also came delegates in person. Camelinat, who had
been a member of the First International and Treasurer
to the Government of the Paris Commune, beaming over
with kindliness, gave his blessing to the I.L.P. pioneers
for liberty. Huysmans, of the Second International,
told how the great fraternity of Socialist effort was
growing in all lands, and paid tribute to the Independent
Labour Party's share in that work. Herman Muller, of
Germany, spoke in the same hopeful strain. There was
eloquent speech-making and brave and stirring music,
including a Song of Liberty, specially composed for
the occasion by Granville Bantock to words written by
Mrs. Bantock. The early pioneers of the Party were
much in evidence; Robert Smillie, Fred Jowett, M.P.,
Bruce Glasier, Mrs. Glasier, with many a rank-and-file
delegate from the first-year branches of the Party,
fighting their battles over again. The general feeling
was one of confidence and optimism, and for the moment,
at least, they had put out of their hearts and minds the
fear of war. Even Hardie's presidential address made
no reference to the European spectre. He looked to
the past and to the future, and if for that future he had
any fears, he kept them to himself. "The past twenty-
one years," he said, "have been years of continuous
progress, but we are only at the beginning. The
emancipation of the worker has still to be achieved, and
just as the I.L.P. in the past has given a good, straight
lead, so shall the I.L.P. in the future, through good
report and ill, pursue the even tenour of its way, until
the sunshine of Socialism and human freedom breaks
forth upon the land."
It was a rejoiceful time for the I.L.P. marred only
slightly by attempted outbreaks of violence from the mili-
tant suffragists, and even they, could they have peered in-
to the near future, would probably have held their hands.
336
"COMING OF AGE"
Hardie's closing words in vacating the chair constitute
the most self-revealing public utterance he ever made,
and as they have also a bearing on present and
probably future developments within the I.L.P., it is
well that they should be preserved. They are also
biographical, in the truest sense of the word. "I think
I have shown that I can be a pioneer, but I am not
guided so much by a consideration of policy, or by
thinking out a long sequence of events, as by intuition
and inspiration. I know what I believe to be the right
thing and I go and do it. If I had, twenty-one years
ago, stopped to think about what the future would bring,
I would not have dared to accept the responsibility of
entering the House of Commons. During those first
three years my wife kept my house going, kept my
children decently and respectably clothed and fed on
an income which did not even exceed twenty-five
shillings a week. Comrades, you do well to honour her.
Never, even in those days, did she offer one word of
reproof. Many a bitter tear she shed, but one of the
proud boasts of my life is to be able to say that if she
has suffered much in health and in spirit, never has she
reproached me for what I have done for the cause I love.
I leave the chair, then, as I did at the end of the first
Conference, to be a pioneer. I said the other day that
those of us who are advanced in years may easily
become cumberers of the ground. I am not going to
die if I can help it, but there is a dead spirit which blocks
the path of the young. I am not going to stand in their
way. I shall die, as I have lived, a member of the I.L.P.,
but I want the Party to have freedom to grow, and I
do not want young men and women to say, 'We might
have done this or that if it had not been for old Keir.'
I will accept no position which will give me standing
over you. I will fight for what I think the right thing,
337
J. KEIR HARDIE
but I will trust your judgment. While I have anything
to give, it shall be given ungrudgingly to the child of
my life the I.L.P."
This was Easter, 1914. The delegates returned to
their districts to report the proceedings to their branches
and to prepare for the usual summer propaganda work
and for the coming general election which was expected
before the end of the year. The possibility of war did
not enter into their calculations. Indeed, it is a remark-
able fact that the great upheaval, so long feared and
dreaded and prophesied, came at the last unexpectedly,
almost like a thief in the night, and gave the democracies
of the various countries no time to organise any
resistance, much less to collaborate internationally on a
common policy. The people of this country were not
dreaming of any European War in which they would
possibly be involved. On the Saturday and Sunday
twenty-four hours before Sir Edward Grey made his
fateful speech which brought the war spirit into the
heart of the country there could be seen on the London
streets groups of men and women on their way to
Germany to convey to the German workers the fraternal
greetings of groups of British Adult Schools and of
British citizens innocent of what had gone on behind the
scenes.
So far as politics were concerned, people were
deeply interested in two subjects only. One was the
increasingly outrageous lawlessness of the militant
suffragists. The other was the threatened Ulster
rebellion in resistance to the Home Rule Act due to
be put in operation shortly. Shiploads of ammunition
said to have been imported from Germany had been
landed in Ireland for the arming of the Ulster Volun-
teers. Certain officers of high rank, responsible for the
control of the military forces in Ireland, had let it be
338
THE WORLD CONFLICT
known that they could not be relied upon to act against
the Ulster rebels, and to the threat of rebellion there
was thus added the threat of mutiny, and though these
officers had somewhat modified their mutinous declara-
tions, the utterances of such politicians as Sir Edward
Carson, F. E. Smith and Bonar Law were the reverse of
reassuring. The situation was regarded as serious. The
people of this country were more concerned about the
Curragh of Kildare than about the Market Square of
Sarajevo.
The Socialist movement, too, was, as has been
indicated, for the time off guard. Philip Snowden, in
rather poor health, went off with Mrs. Snowden on a
world tour. If he had thought so great a crisis was immi-
nent he would certainly have stayed at home. Even the
assassination of the Austrian Grand Duke at Sarajevo
did not awaken serious apprehension of a general Euro-
pean war, though such a possibility was not absent from
the minds of the I.L.P. leaders. That possibility was
indicated in an article by W. C. Anderson in the "Labour
Leader" of July 3Oth, but even at that late date he felt
justified in writing : "Despite all signs to the contrary,
there will, I believe, be no war; nothing, at any rate,
in the nature of extended warfare." And so was it with
the international movement.
On July 29th, the International Socialist Bureau
met at Brussels, hurriedly summoned to consider the
state of matters created by Austria's declaration of war
on Servia. "But," says Bruce Glasier who was present
with Hardie and Dan Irving from Britain, "although
the dread peril of a general eruption of war in Europe
was the main subject of the deliberations, no one, not even
the German representatives, seemed apprehensive of an
actual rupture between the great Powers taking place
until at least the full resources of diplomacy had been
339
J. KEIR HARDIE
exhausted." So little was a general European war
expected that it was decided to go on with the Inter-
national Congress, only changing the place of meeting
from Vienna to Paris because of the state of war in
Austria, and fixing the date for August Qth instead of
the 23rd, the original date. By August 9th, neither Paris
nor any capital in Europe could give hospitality to an
International Socialist Congress.
In the evening after this Bureau meeting in Brussels,
a great anti-war meeting, attended by 7,0x30 people, was
held in the Cirque. Vandervelde, of Belgium, presided.
Haase, of Germany, Jaures, of France, Hardie, of
Britain, all spoke movingly. Jaures, in this last speech he
was ever to make, warmly thanked the German Social
Democrats for their splendid demonstrations in favour
of peace, and with impassioned eloquence invoked the
workers to rescue once and for ever civilisation from the
appalling disaster of war.
Forty-eight hours later Jaures himself fell, not by
the hand of a German, but of a fellow-countryman,
inflamed, it was said, by war madness, though to this
hour no serious attempt has been made to discover
whether any other motive power directed the assassin's
arm. It was here then, in Brussels, that Hardie and
Jaures met and parted for the last time. It was in
Brussels that on this, the very eve of Armageddon, the
citizens, men and women in their thousands, marched
through the streets displaying their white cards with the
strange device, "Guerre a la Guerre" (war against war).
We know what happened to Brussels in the time that
was near at hand.
Yet, still there was hope, amounting almost to a
belief, that the crisis would pass. Assuredly in Great
Britain that was the prevalent conviction, and it was
only when it was realised that Russia was mobilising
340
THE WORLD CONFLICT
her troops, and massing them where, in time of peace,
no Russian troops should be, and that German forces
were threateningly near to the Belgian frontier, that the
people of this country woke up to a real sense of peril,
and it must be said that they did not wake up with any
enthusiasm. The common people did not enter into
war. They were dragged into it. That they could be
dragged into it was due to the fact that they had been
kept wholly ignorant of the doings of their diplomatists,
and they had not believed the I.L.P. when it tried to
inform them. The I.L.P. now, and up to the last
possible moment, directed all its efforts towards keeping
the nation out of the war.
With a spontaneity which was a striking proof of how
surely rooted in principle was the organisation, every
section of it moved in the same way. The National
Council, the Divisional Councils, the Federations, the
branches even the smallest and most isolated of these
acted as by a common impulse ; and on Sunday, August
2nd, in every city, town and village where there was a
branch or group of the Independent Labour Party,
a public protest against the nation being dragged into
the war was made, and a demand that whatever might
happen in Europe, this country should stand neutral
and play the part of peacemaker. Hardie, if he had
time to think of it which he probably had not had
reason to be proud of his beloved I.L.P. that day.
He himself was in Trafalgar Square taking part in
a demonstration organised by the British Section of the
Internationaj Socialist Bureau, of which he was Chair-
man. The Bureau had already issued a Manifesto
which is here reproduced for two reasons, first, because
Hardie was one of the signatories, second, because it is
important to preserve this documentary proof that
organised labour in this country was unitedly opposed
x 341
J. KEIR HARDIE
to the war. Had it continued to be so after war was
declared, history would to-day have had a different and
better story to tell than it can now present to posterity.
The Manifesto was as follows :
"AN APPEAL TO THE BRITISH
WORKING CLASS.
"(Manifesto by British Section of the International
Socialist Bureau.)
"The long-threatened European war is now upon us.
For more than a hundred years no such danger has
confronted civilisation. It is for you to take full account
of the desperate situation and to act promptly and
vigorously in the interests of peace.
"You have never been consulted about the war.
Whatever may be the rights and the wrongs of the sudden
crushing attack made by the Militarist Empire of Austria
upon Servia, it is certain that the workers of all countries
likely to be drawn into the conflict must strain every
nerve to prevent their Governments from committing
them to war.
"Everywhere Socialists and the organised forces of
Labour are taking this course. Everywhere vehement
protests are made against the greed and intrigues of
militarists and armament-mongers.
"We call upon you to do the same here in Great
Britain upon an even more impressive scale. Hold vast
demonstrations in London and in every industrial centre.
Compel those of the governing class and their press,
who are eager to commit you to co-operate with Russian
despotism, to keep silence and respect the decision of
the overwhelming majority of the people, who will have
neither part not lot in such infamy. The success of
Russia at the present day would be a curse to the world.
"There is no time to lose. Already, by secret agree-
342
THE WORLD CONFLICT
ments and understandings of which the democracies of
the civilised world know only by rumour, steps are being
taken which may fling us all into the fray. Workers,
stand together therefore for peace. Combine and
conquer the militarist enemy and the self-seeking
Imperialists to-day once and for all.
"Men and women of Britain, you have now an
unexampled opportunity of showing your power, render-
ing a magnificent service to humanity and to the world.
Proclaim that for you the days of plunder and butchery
have gone by. Send messages of peace and fraternity
to your fellows who have less liberty than you.
"Down with class rule ! Down with the rule of brute
force ! Down with war ! Up with the peaceful rule of
the people !
"Signed on behalf of the British Section of the
International Socialist Bureau,
"J. KEIR HARDIE (Chairman).
"ARTHUR HENDERSON (Secretary)."
There is a strange ring about that appeal now. It
still seemed as if organised Labour would hold together
for the preservation of peace, or for its speedy restoration
if war should come. But it was too late. The country
was in the rapids and was being rushed to the doom of
the waterfall. Within twenty-four hours both temper and
outlook had changed. The heavy blares of the war
trumpets were beginning to perform their magic.
The Trafalgar Square demonstration, which the
"Manchester Guardian" described as "the biggest held for
years," was representative of all sections, as is shown by
the list of speakers, which included Mr. J. Stokes, Chair-
man of the London Trades Council ; George Lansbury,
now of the "Daily Herald"; Robert Williams, of
the Transport Workers' Federation; Will Thorne, M.P.,
343
J. KEIR HARDIE
of the General Labourers' Union; Mary R. Macarthur,
of the Federation of Women Workers; Margaret Bond-
field, of the Shop Assistants' Union; Dr. Marion Phillips,
of the Women's Labour League; Herbert Burrows, of
the British Socialist Party; Keir Hardie, of the I.L.P.;
Arthur Henderson, of the National Labour Party; Mrs.
Despard and Mr. Cunninghame Graham. The latter
gentleman's speech was said to have made the most
profound impression, and to have been "the best he had
ever delivered," which was saying a great deal. "Do
not," he implored, "let us do this crime, or be parties to
the misery of millions who have never done us harm."
In another part of the country Robert Smillie said
that if it were yet possible to stop the war by a cessation
of work all over Europe he would be glad to pledge the
miners to such a course. On August 2nd, labour was
against the war.
On the following night interest was transferred to the
House of Commons, and Parliament was "allowed to
say a few words" before the war, already decided upon,
really started officially.
The few words, from the I.L.P. point of view, were
spoken with unmistakable emphasis by MacDonald and
Hardie. Never did speakers speak under difficulties
like those men. The facts had not been disclosed ; the
crowded House was in a frenzy and wished to listen to
no reason. "I think," said MacDonald, "Sir Edward
Grey is wrong. I think the Government which he
represents and for which he speaks is wrong. I think
the verdict of history will be that they are wrong. There
has been no crime committed by statesmen of this
character without these statesmen appealing to their
nation's honour. We fought the Crimean War because
of our honour. We rushed to South Africa because of
our honour. The right hon. gentleman is appealing to
344
THE WORLD CONFLICT
us to-day because of our honour. So far as we are
concerned, whatever may happen, whatever may be said
about us, whatever attacks may be made upon us, we
will say that this country ought to have remained neutral,
because we believe in the deepest part of our hearts that
is right, and that that alone is consistent with the honour
of the country."
Hardie, some time later on in the debate, made a
speech of extraordinary dignity and earnestness.
Addressing himself in the first place to the consequences
rather than the causes of the war, he impressed everyone
with a sense of the extent of the distress that might be
expected. Unemployment would spread and, lacking
wages, the poor would be robbed by the manipulators of
the various food rings. He darkened the picture of
suffering as only one could who had seen it so frequently.
"How," he asked, "were the Government going to
relieve it?" He pointed out that earlier in the sitting a
Bill to help the bankers had been rushed through all its
stages by the Government. Where was the Bill to help
the workers? He passionately denied that the mass of
the workers of the country were for war. "Had they
been consulted, war would not have happened. Why
were not they consulted?"
Both MacDonald and Hardie knew only too well that
their speeches and protestations were now in vain. They
had made these protestations years before, when they
ought not to have been in vain. What they were doing
now was to clear themselves and their Party from
responsibility for the crime, and, if possible, hold the
Labour movement of this country true and faithful to the
spirit and pledge of International Socialism. It was a
tremendous ordeal for both, but especially for Hardie,
who was the older man, and physically unwell, and only
sustained against collapse by the intensity of the crisis,
345
J. KEIR BARDIE
which made him forgetful of bodily infirmity. These
had been two weeks of terrible strain. The critical
Conference at Brussels; the emotional experience of
that great public gathering there ; the murder of Jaures,
revealing, as by a flash from the fires of hell, the
potential horrors opening out upon humanity; the I.L.P.
Council deliberations; the Labour Party Executive
meetings ; the Socialist Bureau's meetings and decisions ;
the Trafalgar Square demonstration ; and now, this last
solemn hour in the House of Commons. The wonder
is that he was able to pass through it, and that he did
not break down then instead of a year later. There are
occasions for some men when the spirit triumphs over
time and circumstance and fate itself. But for such men
the penalty in pain is very great.
Hardie had yet another ordeal to pass through, and
he resolved to face it at once before going home to the
quietness of Cumnock. He had to see his constituents.
He knew well that the drums of war that were already
beating would, in proportion, as they roused national
pride and prejudice, drown reason, and that if he was
to get a chance to explain his position it would have to
be immediately. (On August 6th, he spoke in Aberclare.
What happened mere had best be described by one who
was present. "As soon as the hall began to fill it was
obvious that a large hostile element was present. There
was no disturbance when Hardie, Richardson and the
Chairman, Councillor Stonelake, mounted on the plat-
form. The Chairman spoke without interruption, but as
soon as he called on Hardie the uproar commenced. A
well organised body of men had taken up a strong
position near the back of the hall, a huge dreary building,
which was usually the local market. They were the
members of the Conservative and the Liberal Clubs who
had always hated Hardie. Their opportunity had come
346
THE WORLD CONFLICT
at last. 'God Save the King' and 'Rule Britannia'
were sung lustily, and the clang of a bell could be heard
amongst the general pandemonium. The crowd in the
front attempted to quell the disturbance. It soon became
evident that Keir Hardie was not going to be heard
that night. Hardie continued to speak for about half an
hour utterly undaunted by the noise, but his voice could
not be heard further than the front seats. Once or twice
a few scraps of phrases could be heard amidst the din.
He was heard to refer to the German workers as good,
kind natured people and the noise drowned the rest. At
last he sat down. Richardson met with a similar reception
and soon gave it up. A Union Jack was displayed, but
it soon disappeared. Evan Parker had seen to that (an
incident which was to tell against him in a D.O.R.A.
prosecution months after). A small body of the comrades
closed round Hardie. There was a rush near the door
but the street was reached safely. The crowd surged
down the side street, but in the main street it began to
get less. But several hundred men followed us up the
main street singing their jingo songs. Hardie was
unperturbed ; he walked straight on with his head erect,
not deigning to look either to the right or the left.
He was staying with Matt Lewis, the school teacher,
secretary of the local Labour Party. As we turned up
the road the crowd became gradually less and, as the
house was reached the sight of Mrs. Lewis with the baby
in her arms dared the rest. Several of the comrades
kept watch for some time. Hardie sat down in the arm-
chair by the fire and lit his pipe. He was silent for a
time staring into the fire. Then he joined in the
conversation, but did not talk so much as usual. I had
to catch the nine o'clock train down the valley. He
shook hands, and said, 'I understand what Christ suffered
in Gethsemane as well as any man living.' '
347
J. KEIR HARDIE
A report of the meeting in the "Western Mail," which
had for its headings
"Mr. Hardie Hooted.
"Hostile Reception in his own Constituency.
"Wild Scenes at.Aberdare Meeting."
confirmed the foregoing account in every particular, but,
in addition, credited him with having restrained his
supporters from retaliating, thereby preventing outbursts
of actual violence. From this report we learn also that
"amid a hurricance of booing Mr. Hardie said that the
whole Liberal press stood for British neutrality until
they heard Sir Edward Grey's speech last Monday.
The effect of that speech was that the Liberal Party
found itself committed to war without having been
consulted in any shape or form' 5 ; and that in his con-
cluding words he declared that "he had won this seat
as a pro-Boer, and he was going to oppose this war in
the interests of civilisation and the class to which he
belonged." The other meetings were abandoned and
he returned to London, where, broken in spirit for the
time, he unbosomed himself to a friend. The result was
that another meeting in Merthyr was arranged and
MacDonald, Glasier and Hardie had a triumphant
reception.
Nor is it too much to believe that if he had lived till
an election came round, he would have still held the seat
for Labour. He spoke several times in the constituency
during the ensuing twelve months without molestation,
and continued his weekly criticism of the Government
in the "Merthyr Pioneer." There was evidence that his
strong personality was beginning to prevail again over
the temporary war prejudice. He had, however, received
348
THE WORLD CONFLICT
a mortal blow, and that Aberdare meeting gave the fatal
wound to the man who had lived his life for his fellows. !
He derived great comfort from the knowledge that his
Welsh I . L . P . comrades were staunch . Except ' 'one who
was numbered with us," there were no deserters. Di
Davies, Lewellyn Francis, John Barr, Evan Parker,
Matt Lewis, Stonelake, Morris, the Hughes family, all
the stalwarts who had fought and won with him, were
now ready to fight and lose with him, and to stand by
him, even unto death if need be. He had reason once
again to be proud of his I.L.P. He did not hide from
them nor from himself the seriousness of the outlook.
"This war," he told the Merthyr comrades, "means
conscription," and there were tears in his eyes as he said
it. "My own boy may be taken, and I would rather see
him in his grave than compelled to fight against other
workers."
He went home to Cumnock to see the boy, and the
boy's mother and sister, and to rest himself for a little
while. It was more than time.
Similar experiences to those of Hardie befell
the other I.L.P. Members of Parliament. MacDonald
at Leicester, Jowett at Bradford, Richardson at
Whitehaven, Snowden when he reached home at
Blackburn, had all to pass through the same ordeal of
calumny and abuse, growing ever more bitter and
unscrupulous as the years of war lengthened out, and
constitutional methods of government were displaced by
militarism and bureaucracy. Hardie did not live to see
the evil thing at its very worst. For the others there
is at least this consolation : they have lived to see their
principles vindicated, and may yet live to see their
cause triumphant and their position honoured.
349
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE LAST YEAR
HARDIE'S rest-time at Cumnock did not last
long. He was not in good health, and never
was again; but while any capacity for work,
mental or physical, remained, he could not lie idle, a
mere onlooker at the new phases of the conflict in which
he had spent his life, the conflict between war and peace,
between Capitalism and Socialism. The forces of evil
had triumphed and were in the ascendant. That was
all the more reason for continuing to fight against them.
He had fought with his back to the wall before. He
would do so now, though it should prove to be the last
fight of all.
On August 27th, he had an article in the "Labour
Leader" which showed no falling off in vigour of
expression or lucidity of statement. It was in answer
p the specious plea put forward on behalf of those
I Socialists who had become aggressively pro-British and
' needed some plausible justification for their lapse from
the principles of Internationalism. Their plea was that
this -country was not at war with the German people
but with the Kaiser, and that the overthrow of Kaiserdom
would be in the interests of Socialism in Germany.; The
victory of the Allies, in fact, would be a victory for
Socialism. Logically, though the apologists shrank
from committing themselves to the statement in so many
words, the war, from the British point of view, was a
Socialist one. Hardie reminded the people who argued
350
THE LAST YEAR
in this fashion that one of the Allies was the government
of the Czar, and he wanted to know how Socialism would
gain by the substitution of Czardom for Kaiserdom. If
he had lived, he might have been able to show that it
was only when Czardom ceased to be of any value as an
ally that Socialism was able to make headway in Russia.
As it was, he was able to show that it was this very fear
of the supremacy of Czardom that had made some
German Socialists also forget their Internationalism.
One passage from this article should be quoted as it
gives the point of view which largely determined
Hardie's attitude towards the war both before its out-
break and during its process in the remaining months
in which he was to be a spectator. "Let anybody take a
map of Europe and look at the position of Germany : on
the one side Russia with her millions of trained soldiers
and unlimited population to draw upon (its traditional
policy for over a hundred years has been to reduce
Prussia to impotence, so that the Slav may reign
supreme), and on the other side France, smarting under
her defeat and the loss of her two provinces, Alsace and
Lorraine, in 1870. For a number of years past these
two militarisms have had a close and cordial alliance.
What was it that brought the Czardom of Russia into
alliance with the free Republic of France? One object,
and one alone, to crush Germany between them. German
armaments and the German navy, were primarily
intended to protect herself and her interests against
these two open enemies. If this reasoning be correct,
it follows that our being* in the war is a matter of the free
choice of our rulers who appear to prefer that Russia
should become the domineering power of Europe. I
do not write these words in order to say that we should
now withdraw from the conflict. That is clearly an
impossibility at present. But if we can get these facts
351
J. KEIR HARDIE
instilled into the mind and brain of our own people, and
of the working class generally, we shall be able to exert
a much greater influence in bringing the war to a close
much more speedily than the military element contem-
plates at present."
In this same article he pointed out that Lord
Kitchener's new army scheme involved the raising and
training of not merely one hundred thousand men, but
of five hundred thousand, and that the final outcome
thereof would be, and was intended to be, Conscription,
a prediction which the Socialist patriots pooh-poohed as
being the one thing from which their voluntary recruiting
campaign was going to save the country! Hardie's
prediction, much to his own sorrow, was just on the verge
of fulfilment when death took him away from it all. He
was at least spared from seeing this humiliation and
enslavement of his class, for whose independence he
had fought all the days of his life.
The article concluded : ^Some British Socialists
are unfortunately ranging themselves on the side of
I militarism, and we shall require to take the strongest
/ possible action to make it clear to our comrades on the
Continent that the hands of the I.L.P., at least, are
clear, and that when the conflict is over, and we
have once again to meet our German, French, Belgian
and Russian comrades, no part of the responsibility for
the crime that has been done in Europe can be laid
at our door.'^
By this time it had become evident that the I.L.P.
would be the only political party or section in this
country refusing to accept any share of responsibility
for the prosecution of the war. The Government started
a great recruiting campaign and called upon all political
and Labour organisations to assist. A majority of the
Labour Party Executive accepted the invitation, as did
352
THE LAST YEAR
also the Parliamentary Labour Party, and both placed
their organising machinery at the service of the War
Office.
[The I.L.P. representatives on the Labour Party
Executive opposed this decision and reported to their^,
own Head Office, while MacDonald had resigned from
the position of Chairman of the Labour Party, actions
which were endorsed by the National Council and by
the entire I.L.P. movement f^/The reasons for this line
of conduct must have been "evident to all who had any
knowledge of the origin and history of the Independent
Labour Party. To have joined with the other parties
would have been equivalent to ceasing to be an Inde-
pendent Labour Party, and neither the leaders nor
the rank and file were prepared to commit moral suicide
in support of a war which they had for ten years back
strenuously striven to obviate. The National Labour
Party might, if it choose, merge itself with its bitterest
opponents, but the I.L.P. could not do that. Even if
Hardie and MacDonald had favoured such a policy- -an
unimaginable supposition they could not have carried
the Party with them. Most of the Divisional and
Federation and Branch officials would have resigned,
and there would have been an end of the I.L.P., a
consummation which would doubtless have gladdened
the hearts of the orthodox party politicians.
The National Council, in its recommendations to
Branches, declared : "If advice has to be given to the
workers, we hold it should come from our own platforms,
preserving the character and traditions of our move-
ment, and we refuse to take our stand by militarists and
enemies of Labour with whose outlook and aims we are
in sharpest conflict, and who will assuredly seize this
opportunity to justify the policy leading up to the war.
Now that the country has been drawn into a deadly and
353
J. KEIR HARDIE
desperate war, which may involve, in the end, our
existence as a nation, it is not a matter for speech making,
least of all from those who will not themselves be called
upon to face the horrors of the trenches."
We can well understand that the spectacle of the
Labour Party (in the creation and fostering of which he
had given so much of his life) transforming itself into
a War Office annexe was a mortifying and painful
spectacle to Hardie. Even more poignant were the
emotions evoked by the consequent estrangement
between men who had been his intimate friends and
comrades, some of whom owed whatever endowment
of political prestige and opportunity they possessed to
their association with himself. I A violent onslaught in
J the press by H. G. Wells affected him not at all, but
parting company with George Barnes and some others
hurt him deeply and permanently. He was stricken not
only by the world, but from within his own household.
The steadfastness of the I.L.P. was the one sustaining
fact proving that all was not lost, and giving to life still
some zest and comfort. But even here there were
individual defections that cut him to the heart. In the
same week in which the already quoted article appeared,
he, with James Maxton, Chairman of the Scottish I.L.P.
Council, and the present writer, attended a district
conference at Edinburgh to explain and discuss the
Party's policy. From Glasgow he telegraphed to a
trusted Edinburgh friend to meet him at the station.
This friend was one of those who had kept an open door
for Hardie, who had pressed always to be nearest to
him on public occasions : a most devoted follower. At
the station the friend was not. Instead, there was a
messenger to say that he had another engagement.
Hardie understood. Another personal tie was broken
never to be renewed. There were others. It was all
354
THE LAST YEAR
part of the price. There were more war-wounds than
those of the battlefield, and just as deadly.
This conference at Edinburgh, and one the following
day at Glasgow, endorsed fully the policy outlined by
the National Council, which was indeed simply a
reflection of the will of the Party in general. At both
conferences Hardie spoke with vigour and clearness and
seemed to be the same man he had always been, save
for a slight tendency to irritability, most unusual with
him, and probably indicating some nervous derangement
due to his recent trying experiences.
| That his mental powers were unimpaired was shown
in"5 strong and uncompromising reply to the critics of
the I.L.P. in the "Labour Leader" of September loth.
Amongst these critics were included Mr. H. G. Wells,
of whom and his friends in the controversy Hardie said
they "must make up their own minds as to what they
must do. That is their own affair. But one thing they
must not do. They must not lie about those who differ
from them. When Mr. Wells writes that I am 'trying
to misrepresent the negotiations which took place before
the war/ he writes an untruth. Mr. Wells is shouting
with the multitude and it is unworthy of the man to
speak of either Mr. Ramsay MacDonald or myself as
having whined in our criticism of the policy of the
Foreign Secretary. But, after all, Mr. Wells has a
reputation, not only in newspaper articles, but in his
books, of taking a mean advantage of those whom he
does not like."jThe manner of Mr. Wells' retort proved
that Hardie Kad not lost his old faculty for making his
opponents very angry while he himself remained per-
fectly cool. In this article, on the question of recruiting,
he had a query for Trade Union leaders. "It was in the
year 1911 that the British army was last mobilised and
two men were shot dead at Llanelly. Would any railway
355
J. KEIR BARDIE
man have touted for recruits for the army then? And
is not the enemy of the worker the same now as then?
The most prominent of the South African exiles has
been to Germany and comes back with the declaration
that 'the only attitude for the British Empire to adopt,
I am convinced, is to fight with every available man until
the Prussian military despotism is beaten. I am pleased
to learn that South Africa is rising to the occasion/ Now,
is was not 'Prussian military despotism' that sent troops
to massacre striking- miners in Johannesburg, or that sent
into exile, where they still are, the writer of that passage
and his colleagues."
What was wrong with Hardie and the I.L.P. was that
their memories were too retentive. They could not
forget that there was a capitalist system and a capitalist
class, or that there was a British policy which openly
labelled itself "Imperialism/' nor could they forget
history and its story of how all wars began and how
they ended.
During the month of September, similar conferences
to those at Edinburgh and Glasgow were held all over
the country, those at Ipswich, Leeds, Liverpool,
Manchester and Eccles being addressed by Hardie
who continued to show the same energy which had
characterised his propaganda work all through life, so
that there seemed some justification for the belief
amongst those who were not in close touch with him that
his leadership would be available for many years to come,
and that the end of the war, which it was hoped would
come soon by means of negotiation, would find him still
in the van of the progressive movement.
In October, he was back in his own constituency where
the reception given him (the meeting to which reference
has already been made) was in striking contrast to the
organised hooliganism at Aberdare in the first week of
356
THE LAST YEAR
the war. With him were MacDonald and Glasier, and
to an audience of three thousand in the skating rink at
Merthyr the trio of the I. L. P. champions explained and
defended the policy of the Party. They were well
received and loudly cheered, and the indications were
that Hardie had not lost his hold on the constituency, and
that any defection there may have been was more than
counterbalanced by new adherents won by his courage
and straightforwardness. He also held meetings of the
I.L.P. branches in the constituency, at Merthyr, Moun-
tain Ash, Aberdare and Penrhiwceiber, receiving votes
of confidence in each place. This was at a time when
the war fever was mounting and the recruiting campaign
was in full swing. He was still continuing his weekly
articles in the "Merthyr Pioneer/ 5 which circulated all
through the constituency, and the people in the district
were thoroughly familiar with his views and opinions on
the war, his attitude towards recruiting and his general
outlook. The fact that there were no manifestations of
hostility during this visit might have been an indication
of the existence of a spirit of fair play in the Merthyr
community sadly lacking in most other districts, or it
might have been due to the personal respect which his
past services had won from them. Probably both
influences were at work.
In the "Labour Leader" of November 5th, Hardie
had a review of Brailsford's book, "The War of Steel
and Gold," written before the outbreak of war, but as
readers of the book know, substantiating both by fact
and argument the Socialist analysis of the causes which
produced the war. As was to be expected, Hardie gave
the book high praise. The opponents of the war,
standing against overwhelming odds, with the entire
British press against them and a Defence of the Realm
Act already looking for sedition in every pacifist
Y 357
J. KEIR HARDIE
utterance, were naturally glad to avail themselves of
every intellectual contribution which might fortify them
in the defence of their convictions. At the outset of
the war the withdrawal from the Government of such
men as Lord Morley, Lord Loreburn, Mr. John Burns,
and Mr. C. P. Trevelyan was of itself a comforting
though silent witnessing on their behalf, while the
searching criticism of foreign policy by Bertrand
Russell, Gilbert Cannan, E. D. Morel, and Arthur
Ponsonby, M.P., none of whom could at that time be
described as Socialists in their outlook, was also of
great value. In the same category was Mr. Brailsford's
book, and it was eminently satisfactory to Hardie because
it emphasised the sinister influence of Russia, upon
which he had insisted so strongly in all his platform and
press declarations. He urged that it should be widely
circulated by all I.L.P. branches and propaganda
agencies.
George Bernard Shaw's pamphlet, " Common Sense
about the War," which first appeared as an article in
"The New Statesman," and was the cause of much
controversy and the subject of hostile criticism in "The
Citizen," a paper originally promoted as the organ of
the Labour movement, gave Hardie much satisfaction,
chiefly because it tore to shreds that British self-
righteousness which saw motes in the diplomatic German
eye, but never a beam in that of the British or the Allies.
He wrote the following letter to Shaw :
"House of Commons,
"November 26th, 1914.
"Dear Bernard Shaw,
"As my disgust with the 'Citizen's 5 attitude over the
war is great, I have not even looked at it for some weeks.
Thus it comes that I knew nothing about its attack on
358
THE LAST YEAR
your 'New Statesman' article until someone told me of
your letter in to-day's issue. I am sending for the issue
containing the attack and shall see what can be done
to raise the Socialist and Labour unions to make protest.
The paper is making rapidly for the void. The circu-
lation, after going up to 70,000 [a great under-estimate]
a day, is now less than it was before the war broke out. A
big effort is now about to be made to raise more funds
to keep it going, but nothing can save it so long as the
present bumptious and reactionary cad is in the chair.
"May I now say that which I failed to muster enough
courage to say when first I felt the thrill of your article,
that its inspiration is worth more to England than this
war has yet cost her in money I mean. When it gets
circulated in popular form and is read, as it will be, by
hundreds of thousands of our best people of all classes,
it will produce an elevation of tone in the national life
which will be felt for generations to come. In Scottish
ploughman phrase, 'God bless ye, and send ye speed.'
"I prohibit any reply to this, or even acknowledge-
ment. It is the expression of a heart which now throbs
towards you with almost feelings of devotion.
"Sincerely,
"J. KEIR HARDIE.
"P.S. Only a Celt could have done it."
Shaw's article did not produce "an elevation of tone
in the national life." All the angelic hosts could not
have done that. It only added to the volume of
damning. The tone-producers were Northcliffe, Hulton,
Bottomley, and such-like, and their combined output
was the reverse of elevating.
The fervour of gratitude in the closing words of
Hardie's letter gives some indication of how much he
was feeling the need for sympathy and support. With
359
J. KEIR HARDIE
all his courageous facing of the situation on the plat-
form and in the press, so far as it was available, the
conditions growing up around him were such as to make
life for a man of his temperament and principles, almost
unbearable. He could hardly move without coming
in contact with the things that were hateful to him.
The very colour scheme of the streets had now militarist
khaki for its dominant note. The noises in the streets
were militarist noises, even the cries of the newsboys
were "shouts of war/' The marching and drilling of
men, the drum-beatings and bugle-calls, the open train-
ing of young boys in bomb-throwing and in bayonet
exercise with dummy figures to represent Germans, and
with accompanying obscene expletives to stimulate
hate and blood-lust, were rehearsals of the foul sport
deliberately calculated to brutalise the public mind.
The overbearing vulgar swagger of many of the officer
class, the steady supersession of civic authority by
military rule, the abdication of Parliament itself in favour
of the militarists, and, added to all, the news and ever
more news, of colossal bloody murder on the battlefield,
made the world into an inferno for him. He could not
get away from it. Wherever he turned it was there. In
the House of Commons, in the House of God; in the
streets, in the railway stations and the train compart-
ments ; amongst the hills and glens and valleys, on the
open highway everywhere omniscient and omni-
present, ruthless in the lusty day of its power. The thing
he had fought, Militarism, was triumphant. Perhaps
worst of all, he saw in this the coarsening of the public
mind, the swamping of its intelligence, and, in spite of
fine words, the lowering of its ideals. If these things
read hard, they must stand here as they were Hardie's
thoughts, and time has already begun to deliver its
verdict upon them.
360
THE LAST YEAR
In the midst of all this, Shaw's "Common Sense
about the War," even with its acceptance of the war as
a fact which could not now be run away from, was to
Hardie like a gleam of sunshine through the darkness-
like a drop of water to a very thirsty man.
In the last week of November, he went to Blackburn,
Philip Snowden's constituency, and spoke three times
in the district. Snowden was at the time in New Zealand,
but he had found means, by speech and interview, to
let his constituents and the world in general know that
he was at one with his I.L.P. colleagues at home in their
policy on the war. It was necessary, in his absence, to
have that policy made clear, and to give the fullest
encouragement to his supporters. Hardie evidently
succeeded in doing so, for the "Northern Daily
Telegraph" declared that, "both at the Trades Hall and
the I.L.P. Institute, Mr. Hardie was greeted in a most
cordial manner, his reception possibly being warmer
because of the way he has been attacked during recent
weeks."
He had, however, for the time being at least,
exceeded the. limit of his powers and had once more to
turn his face homeward suffering from what appeared to
his friends to be a very dangerous nervous breakdown.
During the greater part of December he rested at home,
but did not show much sign of improvement. It was
this illness which gave rise to a rumour that he had been
attacked by paralysis, a rumour which travelled far, as
we shall see. The trouble was quite serious enough,
and it would have been good for him if he could have
>been prevailed upon to continue resting. It was perhaps
part of the trouble that he could not do so. He was
restless and unsettled, and could not stay quietly as a
looker-on at events. He had to be faithful in his storm-
tossed world.
361
J. KEIR HARDIE
On the first Saturday of the New Year, he was in
Glasgow addressing the annual Scottish Divisional Con-
ference of the I.L.P. Here an incident occurred of a
kind not calculated to be helpful to a man suffering
from nervous trouble. It was a conference of delegates
to which the public had no right of admission, but it was
found that four persons had obtained entrance to the
ante-room of the hall without the necessary credentials
and were known to be detectives. They were asked
to withdraw, and did so. The Defence of the Realm
Act was now in full operation, but the officers of the
law had not yet fully realised the powers which it con-
ferred upon them. Otherwise they might have insisted
upon remaining, in which case there would probably
have been serious trouble arising not out of any words
spoken by Hardie, but out of the resentment of the
delegates to the presence of spies. Hardie was not
informed of the incident till after he had spoken, but
it annoyed him and rankled in his mind. He was
accustomed to open opposition and to press misrepre-
sentation. But to be spied upon in his own country
was a new experience, and too much akin to Russian
and German methods. It troubled him greatly and
preyed upon him.
His speech was simply in the nature of advice to the
delegates to hold fast to the I.L.P. organisation during
the troublous times through which they were passing.
He counselled them to continue their propaganda for
Socialism, and to seek representation on Citizen Com-
mittees and all other bodies through which it might be
possible to safeguard the rights and interests of the
common people without taking responsibility for the
conduct of the war. He also advised them to associate
with other agencies and movements working for the
speedy restoration of peace.
362
THE LAST YEAR
On the following night Sunday he spoke in Hamil-
ton, making his last public appearance in the district
where, thirty-five years before, he had started out as an
agitator. There were men there who had worked in the
pits with him, and who still worked in the pits. They
were proud of the record of the comrade of their youth,
but some of them perturbed and doubtful of the wisdom
of his attitude on the war. His speech was a vindication
of that attitude as being in conformity with the whole of
his past career. He showed that the Liberal Party had
held the same attitude as himself towards the war, but
had changed in a single day. His own principles, as
they knew, had never been of that flexible quality, and
he held that because the Foreign Office secret alliance
with Russia had involved the country in an unnecessary
war, that was no reason why he, or the Party to which
he belonged, should approve of the war, but rather the
reverse. He spoke argumentatively and clearly, but
without passion. Mrs. Hardie was with him on the
platform, and few in the audience could have guessed
that she had wished to keep him away from the meeting
and that her one concern was that it should come to an
end quickly that she might get him away safely to the
place where he ought to be, in bed, and within call of
medical attendance.
After a week's rest he began to regain strength, so
much so, that by the end of January his colleagues
of the N.A.C. sent him congratulations on his
recovery. The re-assembling of Parliament drew him
up again to London as by a magnet, to live again
lonely in the Nevill's Court lodgings and to attend to
his Parliamentary work.
On February 25th, he spoke in opposition to the
proposal to relax the educational by-laws to enable
children under twelve to be employed in agricultural
363
J. KEIR HARDIE
work, the alleged reason being the shortage of men
caused by the war. He contended that working-class
children should not have their educational opportunities
curtailed because of the war, and declared that the real
object aimed at was to enable the farmers to obtain
cheap labour. "The by-laws," he said, "issued to
protect our children are being practically swept out of
existence. I think it can be demonstrated that they are
bemg swept aside, not because of any special necessity
for child labour, but very largely as a means of perpetu-
ating uneducated sweated labour in the agricultural
districts." He had a partial alternative, in the suggest-
ing of which there came out some personal reminiscences
of an interesting kind. "There is one proposal upon
which I do not know whether my colleagues would be
unanimous, but which I think might be used to great
account in solving this problem during the war period.
I refer to the employment of women. I can remember
in Scotland, my own mother, who was a farm servant,
often at work after she was married, with her family
growing up. I have seen her employed in the fields at
kinds of work which I would not like to see women
employed at now : but there is much work about a farm
which is perfectly respectable and clean, and which calls
for a certain amount of intelligence, such as milking,
the handling of milk, the making of butter, and many
other occupations which a woman can do with advantage
to herself and to others. But the average woman brought
up in the town has lost all instinct for, and all contact
with, the life of the farm."
On this occasion, for the first time in his life, he claimed
indulgence from his fellow Members of the House of
Commons on the ground of ill-health, giving that as
the reason for lack of energy in his treatment of the
subject. It was fitting that his last recorded parlia-
364
THE LAST YEAR
mentary utterance should have been on behalf of
working-class children.
About this time it would be that he met by chance
Lord Morley. His note on the incident in the "Merthyr
Pioneer" has for us even a deeper pathos than it had
then. Not Lord Morley, the octogenarian, was the first
to pass from the scene, but Hardie the much younger
man. "Passing along the Lobby the other day, I met a
familiar figure, the outstanding figure of the trio who
resigned from the Ministry rather than soil their
consciences by the bloodshedding in which we are now
engaged. He stopped and shook hands with me.
'You have been ill/ he said; 'what was the matter? Was
it the war which so weighed upon your soul and spirit
that it made your body sick?' I had to smile a vague
assent to the question. 'The war/ he said, 'when will it
end? If we lose, we shall pay an awful penalty; if we
win, the penalty may be greater still/ He sighed as he
walked away with the weight of eighty years bending his
shoulders. I stood and watched the retiring figure, and
thought to myself, there goes the last of England's
great statemen. To-day, it is not statesmanship or
principle which actuates those who hold office. They
are as completely under the power of the capitalist as
any ordinary member of the Stock Exchange."
And thus these two sincere men, diametrically opposed
to each other in political and philosophical outlook, met
now on common moral ground. To both, the war was a
crime, and Britain's part in it wicked and foolish. And
both were helpless to prevent it or to stop it.
On March 25th, he had an article in the "Labour
Leader," the last he ever wrote for that paper, though,
as we shall see, not his last press utterance. There was
nothing valedictory about this article, nothing to indicate
that he had come to the limit of his power or that he
365
J. KEIR BARDIE
himself felt conscious that the end was near. The title
of the article was "Patriotism Measured in Millions."
Therein he traced the growth of the Imperialist idea in
British foreign policy, synchronising with the growth
of capital investments in the colonies and in foreign
countries, and, in order to show to what this had led, he
quoted Lloyd George's reply to a question, on March
1 3th. "The total British capital invested abroad amounts
to four thousand million pounds (4,000,000,000), and
the income from interest on colonial and foreign invest-
ments is two hundred million pounds (200,000,000) a
year."
The following passage from this article is well worth
producing now. "Very many millions will be needed to
finance our allies, and to induce some to join in the
murderous melee who now stand aloof. When the war
is over these will require large sums for the renewal of
their navies, and the creation of new, and the repair of
war-destroyed, railways and the like. There will also
be unlimited scope for new companies to open out the*
great mineral, oil and other industries of Russia, Persia,
and the Balkans, which are yet in their infancy, and the
British investor will be the only man left with money to
float them. France and Germany will alike be bankrupt,
and only the United States will remain as a -possible
competitor with Lombard Street"
He did not foresee the Bolshevik intervention to spoil
sport for the British financiers, but, had he lived, he
would have had no difficulty in explaining the malignant
attempts to prevent the Socialist regime from establishing
itself in Russia.
Withal his realistic vision of the dread consequences
of the war, he had not lost hope in humanity, nor faith
in Socialism. "When the war is only a stinking memory
of a bloodstained nightmare, and we are again face to
366
THE LAST YEAR
face with the real things of life, then surely there will be
a great and mighty agitation for complete enfranchise-
ment of democracy, man and woman alike, who will then
be able to win control over both domestic and foreign
policy, and break the rule of those to whom Imperialism
and Militarism mean wealth and power, and to instal
all the peoples of all lands in authority, and thus bring
plenty, peace and concord to a long-suffering race."
This was his last "Labour Leader" article, but it
might have been written in his prime, so vigorous was
it, so clear in the marshalling of fact and argument, so
dignified in diction. It was not to be wondered at that
the movement was deceived into believing that the end of
the war would find Keir Hardie still guiding and inspir-
ing it, especially as during all this time he had, by an
extraordinary exercise of will power, or else by sheer
force of habit, been contributing almost without a break
his weekly article to the "Merthyr Pioneer," and did
so up till as late as April i7th.
Curiously enough, on the same date as this final
"Labour Leader" article, March 25th, the "Merthyr
Pioneer," reproduced from an American paper, the
"Boston Evening Transcript," an obituary sketch of
Keir Hardie's career, the rumour of the attack of
paralysis having evidently been accepted as true. The
sub-heading of the sketch, "Another of England's
Picturesque Figures Passes from the Scene," though
premature, was not inapt. Keir Hardie had not passed,
but he was passing. He had made his last speech in
Parliament; he had written his last article in the "Labour
Leader"; and now he was going to attend his last I.L.P.
Conference.
It was held at Norwich under conditions unprecedented
in British history. Great Britain was governed as if it
were a beleaguered country. There had been night-
367
J. KEIR HARDIE
time Zeppelin raids on the Norfolk coast, and when,
on Easter eve, the I.L.P. delegates, many of whom
had been travelling for twelve hours in crowded trains,
reached Norwich, they entered a city of dreadful night,
and had to be piloted through utter darkness to their
hotels and lodgings. When Easter morn came, and
with it the blessed sunshine, it revealed a city full of
soldiers, with officers billeted in all the hotels, and with
bugle-calls and drum-beats mocking the peaceful message
of the chiming Eastertide bells. An attempt had been
made to prevent the I.L.P. Conference being held,
through the cancelling of the halls engaged for the Con-
ference and the public meeting. In the interests of
free speech the Primitive Methodist Church placed its
Schoolroom at the disposal of the Conference; and it
has to be recorded and remembered that two other
religious organisations, the Scott Memorial Church and
the Martineau Unitarian Church, had also offered the
use of their meeting places.
At the Conference, Hardie, who was looking very
ill, spoke only once, and just at the close, in support
of a special resolution protesting strongly against
severe sentences passed upon fifty-three members of
the Russian Seamen's Union and on the five Socialist
Members of the Duma, and asking the British Govern-
ment to bring pressure to bear on the Russian
Government with a view to their ultimate freedom. In
his speech he declared that the fifty-three seamen were
in prison for no offence except membership of a trade
union. Their secretary was illegally arrested in Egypt,
he was sent to Russia, and there sentenced to Siberia.
"Some of us tried in the House of Commons to get Sir
Edward Grey to intervene, or at least to have him
tried in Egypt. Grey then said that this country could
not interfere with the political affairs of another country.
368
THE LAST YEAR
One of the biggest risks we run is being allied to a
nation whose past and present record is a disgrace to
civilisation and progress. The alliance with Russia is
not to help Belgium. It is to open up fresh fields
for exploitation by capitalists. We register our protest
against all the infamies of the bloody cruelty of Russia."
These were the last words of Keir Hardie at a Con-
ference of the Independent Labour Party. Never again
would the delegates hear the voice or grasp the hand
of the man who for twenty-two years had been their
leader, comrade and friend.
Yet he was not finished, nor his fighting quite done.
His speech at the public meeting on the Saturday
evening brought him once again into public conflict
with authority. The circumstances are within memory,
[[but Hardie's own words which ruffled Mr. Lloyd George
to anger, will best recall the situation. "In time of
war, one would have thought the rich classes would
grovel on their knees before the working classes, who
are doing so much to pile up their wealth. Instead,
the men who are working eighty-four hours a week are
being libelled, maligned and insulted; and, on the
authority of their employers, the lying word, accepted
without inquiry by Lloyd George, went round the world
that the working class were a set of drunken hooligans.
That is the reward they got. The truth is, that the
shifts could be arranged so as to overtake all the work
in hand. Mr. John Hill, the Secretary of the Boiler-
makers, has shown that if the shipbuilders would reduce
their contracts ten per cent., the Government could
get all their work done, but the shipbuilders will not do
that because ships were being sold at two and threq
times their value before the war."
^ Popularity was then, as always, essential to Mr. Lloyd
George; loss of it, a thing to be dreaded. At that
369
J. KEIR BARDIE
moment especially it was needful for him to stand well
in the opinion of the working classes. He hastened to
essay the task of clearing himself from the charge
involved in Hardie's remarks. On Monday he sent a
telegram to Hardie, quoting the offending passage, and
concluding with a query for which the quotation afforded
no basis whatever. "Would you kindly let me know
where and when I am supposed to have uttered such
words or anything that would justify so monstrous a
deduction." Hardie's telegram in reply was as follows :
"I pointed out that the employers, when before you,
concerning output of armaments, etc., had put the whole
blame on the drinking habits of the workers, and that
you, by accepting this statement without challenge, had
given world currency to the fiction that the workers were
drunken wasters. I never said 'bullies' nor have .1 seen
the report from which you quote. Keir Hardie."
IjVIr. Lloyd George, notwithstanding this explanation,
sent a denunciatory letter to the press accusing the
I.L.P. leader of "reckless assertion," "wild accusation,"
"mischievous statement," "excited prejudice," but at the
same time found it necessary to explain that he himself
had referred only to a small section of the working
classes, a qualifying excuse which would probably never
have been given but for Hardie's public protest on behalf
of the reputation of his class. Lloyd George's letter
received the fullest prominence in the press. Hardie's
letter in reply was relegated to the back columns, and
in some cases sub-edited to distortionTA
With this incident the public career of Keir Hardie
came to a close. He ended, as he had begun, standing up
for the working people. The British public heard no more
of Keir Hardie until the closing days of September, when
the newspapers announced his death. During the inter-
vening months it was borne in upon his intimate friends
370
THE LAST YEAR
and colleagues that the days of their leader were
numbered. Indeed, early in May it seemed as if the end
had come. The illness from which he had been suffering
intermittently since the previous August reached an
acute stage, producing what looked like complete
collapse. He was in London at the time, and after a
week, at the end of which it had become evident that the
necessary care and attention was not possible in the
Nevill's Court lodgings, and that in his physical condi-
tion travelling home to Scotland was also out of the
question, he was removed to Caterham Sanatorium, where
he had alike the benefit of skilled medical and nursing
attendance, and the devoted service of personal friends,
chief amongst these being the ever faithful Frank Smith
and Tom Richardson, M.P. Mr. Smith took charge of
his correspondence and warned all inquirers, of whom
there were hundreds, against addressing any letters to
Hardie himself, such letters being more disturbing than
helpful. At the end of the first month he was still unfit
for railway travelling, and Mrs. Hardie came up from
Cum nock and remained with him until he was able to
face the homeward journey four weeks later. During
all this time there had been alternating periods of
oblivion, acute physical suffering, and apparently normal
alertness. It was during one of the normal intervals that
he, with the consent of the medical advisers, determined
to make for Cumnock. He broke the journey at
Newcastle and stayed for a few days with Mr. and Mrs.
Richardson, arriving home in Cumnock at the end of
July, Frank Smith and Tom Richardson being his
travelling companions. A week or two of rest in the
home circle seemed to bring him some renewal of
strength, and he ventured to cross over to Arran where
his son Duncan was having a brief holiday the elder
son, James, had been settled in America for some years
J. KEIR HARDIE
and was therefore unable to be with his father during
these last weeks. From Arran, after a few days, he went
on a visit to his brother George at Clarkston, Glasgow,
where the utmost care and attention awaited him. Neither
the breezes of Arran, nor the comforts of home, nor the
solicitude of friends could now ward off the approach
of that "White Herald" of whom he had once spoken
as a welcome friend rather than a foe to be dreaded.
On Wednesday, September 22nd, a change for the
worse took place, and on the advice of the doctors, who
still seemed to think that some partial recovery was
possible, removal to a home for special treatment was
decided upon. On the Saturday a great weakness
overcame him, and in the evening pneumonia set in.
On Sunday at noon, September 26th, he passed peace-
fully away in the presence of his wife and daughter.
Thus, in his sixtieth year, in the second month of the
second year of the Great War, which he had tried to
avert and of which he was unquestionably one of the
victims, died Keir Hardie. Next morning, when the
newspapers announced his death, they carried heartfelt
sorrow into many thousands of British homes, sorrow,
not alone for the loss of a great agitator and Labour
leader, but for that of a dear personal friend.
Probably never was any public man so sincerely and
deeply loved by so many people as was Keir Hardie.
On the following Wednesday, a great concourse of
mourners of all classes, but mostly of the working class,
joined the funeral procession which followed his remains
through the streets of Glasgow to the Crematorium at
Maryhill, where eight years before he had said farewell
to his father and mother. Some were there who had
accompanied him through the greater part of his public
life, Robert Smillie, Bruce 'Glasier, Sandy Haddow,
George Carson, William M. Haddow, Alex. Gilchrist,
372
THE LAST YEAR
James Neil, Cunninghame Graham, and others, recalling
memories of the early days of struggle ere fame or even
the promise of success had come as a stimulus to labour
and self-sacrifice. His colleagues of the I.L.P. National
Council were, of course, there, as many as could attend,
Ramsay MacDonald, T. D. Benson, W. C. Anderson,
Fred Jowett and the others, serious and sad at this last
parting with the comrade of so many years of ceaseless
endeavour for the betterment of the common people.
Delegates came all the way from Merthyr Tydvil,
members of the election committee who had fought side
by side with him in those never-to-be-forgotten political
battles and who now realised sorrowfully that never
again would Keir Hardie lead them to victory.
At the funeral there were no delegates from foreign
lands to lay wreaths upon the bier of the man who had
striven so resolutely for international unity of purpose
among Socialists, and who had refused to join in a
struggle which he held to be fratricidal and unnatural.
The war which had slain Jaures of France, and Franck
of Germany, had now claimed Keir Hardie of Great
Britain, and had made it impossible for any of the men
and women with whom he had fraternised in the common
efforts for international Socialist achievement to manifest
in person their respect for him and his work.
A simple burial service was conducted by the Rev.
A. M. Forson, of London, whose associations with
Hardie dated back to the early evangelising days. A few
words from Bruce Glasier calling upon those present to
honour the memory of their lost leader by preserving
his ideals and continuing his work. A brief exhortation
in a similar strain to the multitude outside from W. C.
Anderson both have since followed him into the
unknown country of which Hardie used to speak as the
"Beyond" and the mourners dispersed.
z 373
J. KEIR HARDIE
Here ends the work of the present writer. He has
tried to tell as fully as possible the story of Keir Hardie's
life, and leaves it to others to estimate the value of his
work and example. Time itself will probably prove
to be the truest commentator, and it is the firm belief
of the writer that the passing of the years will
establish Keir Hardie as one of the permanently historic
figures in that great age-long progressive movement
which must find its complete realisation in the establish-
ment of human equality on a basis of mutual service
by all members of the human family. An essential part
of that process is the struggle of the working class in
all countries for the abolition of class. In directing that
struggle Keir Hardie played an important part during
an important period. In future years, whatever may be
the prevailing form of society, men and women will
have to turn their thoughts back to that period, and will
find James Keir Hardie to have been one of its out-
standing characters. Perhaps even this imperfect
account of his life will help them to know the kind of
man he was, and to visualise the environment amidst
which he lived. That his worth and the nature of his
rendered service is already beginning to be understood
is apparent. The monument which the Ayrshire miners
are erecting is only one of the signs of that recognition.
The annual Keir Hardie celebrations held by the Inde-
pendent Labour Party is another. These organisations
themselves stand as a proof of his courage, foresight and
resolute energy. But the time will come when miners'
unions and political Labour Parties will be unnecessary,
and even then there may linger some dim memory
traditional it may be of an incorruptible man of the
common people, who, in his own person, symbolised the
idea of independence, and in his message proclaimed
the practicability of Brotherhood.
374
CHRONOLOGY
AND
INDEX
CHRONOLOGY
1856.
J. Keir Hardie born (August i5th).
1866.
In the mine. Trapper.
1879.
Marries Miss Lillie Wilson (June 3rd).
Appointed Corresponding Secretary,
Hamilton Miners (July 3rd).
Appointed Miners' Agent (August).
1880.
Miners' Strikes in Lanarkshire.
1881.
Ayrshire Miners' Strike (October).
1882.
Joins staff of "Ardrossan Herald" and
"Cumnock News."
1884.
Franchise Act : Household and lodger
franchise extended to the counties.
1886.
Ayrshire Miners' Union formed.
Appointed Organising- Secretary.
Scottish Miners' Federation formed.
Appointed Secretary.
1887.
No. i of "The Miner" issued (January).
Ayrshire Miners declare for a Labour
Party.
Adopted as miners' candidate for
North Ayrshire.
Udston Colliery Disaster (May).
First attendance at Trades Union
Congress, Swansea (September).
Speech at Irvine (October).
1888.
(April
3,847
2,917
617
Mid-Lanarkshire By-elaction
27th). Result :
J. W. Phillips (L)
W. R. Bousfield (C) ..
J. Keir Hardie (Lab) ..
Declines Sir George Trevelyan's offer
of 300 a year from the Liberal
Party.
Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party
formed (August 25th).
Attends International Trades Union
Congress, London (November).
Attends International Congress, Paris.
First No. of the "Labour Leader"
(monthly) issued (February).
1892.
General Election. Elected for West
Ham (South). Result:
J. Keir Hardie (I.L.P.) 5,268
Maj. G. E. Banes (C) 4,036
Refuses financial help from Mr.
Andrew Carnegie.
First question in Parliament (August
i8th).
Declines ^"300 a year offered by the
Misses Kippen.
l8 93 .
Presides at Conference at Bradford at
which the Independent Labour
Party is established (January I3th
and 1 4th).
First speech in Parliament (February
7th).
Hull Dock Strike.
376
CHRONOLOGY
1894.
4.750
3.975
Elected Chairman of I.L.P., Manches-
ter Conferencg (February 2nd
and 3rd).
"Labour Leader" issued weekly
from March 3ist.
Visits Ireland.
l8 95 .
General Election, Defeated for West
Ham (South). Result:
Maj. G. E. Banes (C)
J. Keir Hardie (I.L.P.)
First visit to America.
Refuses offer of $100,000 to commit
the I.L.P. to support of Bi-
metallism.
1896.
Attends International Socialist Con-
gress, London (July).
Boggart Hole Ciough Free Speech
Agitation.
Bradford East By-election (November
loth). Result :
Capt. Hon. R. H. F.
Greville (C) 4,921
A. Billson (L) 4,526
J. Keir Hardie (I.L.P.) 1,953
1898.
South Wales Miners' Strike.
1899.
War with the South African Re-
publics.
1900.
Scottish Workers' Representation
Committee established, Free
Gardeners' Hall, Edinburgh
(January 6th).
Labour Representation Committee
established, Memorial Hall, Lon-
don (February 27th).
Resigns Chairmanship of I.L.P. at
^ Conference held at Glasgow (April
1 6th and i7th).
Contests Preston and Merthyr at
General Election. Results :
Preston
R. W. Hanbury (C) ... 8,944
W. E. M. Tomlinson
(C) 8,067
J. Keir Hardie (I.L.P.) 4,834
Merthyr
D. A. Thomas (L) ..... 8,598
J. Keir Hardie (Lab)... 5,745
W. Fritchard Morgan
(L) ...................... 4.004
1901.
Moves Socialist resolution in House of
Commons (April 23rd).
Taff Vale judgment.
1902.
Death of father and mother (April).
South African War ends (June).
Holiday on the Continent after illness.
^OS-
Presides at Unemployed Conference at
the Guildhall, London (February
Undergoes operation for appendicitis.
Gives up editorship of the "Labour
Leader" and transfers paper to the
I.L.P. (December).
1904.
Visits Continent to recuperate after
illness.
Attends International Socialist Con-
gress at Amsterdam.
1906.
General Election. Re-elected for
Merthyr. Result :
D. A. Thomas (L) ......... 1 3>97i
J. Keir Hardie (L.R.C.) ... 10,187
H. Radcliffe (L) ............ 7,776
Visits Ireland.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour
Party.
Fiftieth birthday celebration. Presenta-
tion at Memorial Hall, London.
1907.
Re-elected Chairman of the Parlia-
mentary Labour Party.
Publishes "From Serfdom to
Socialism."
Left Liverpool for tour round the
world (July i2th).
International Socialist Congress,
Stuttgart.
377
CHRONOLOGY
1908.
Return from world tour. Welcome
Home meeting at the Albert Hall,
London (April 5th).
Election for Lord Rectorship of Glas-
gow University (October). Result :
Lord Curzon .... 947
Lloyd George ... 935
Keir Hardie .... 122
Omitted from invitation to the King's
Garden Party.
Attends Dominion Trades Union Con-
gress in Nova Scotia (September).
1909.
Chairman Labour Party.
Publishes "India: Impressions and
Suggestions."
Resigns from National Council I.L.P.
(April).
Attends Young Egyptian Party Con-
gress, Geneva.
Osborne Judgment.
1910.
General Election (January). Merthyr
result :
E. R. Jones (L) 15,448
J. Keir Hardie (Lab) 13,841
A. C. Fox Davies (C) 4,756
W. Pritchard Morgan
(I-L) 3,639
Presides at Labour Party Conference,
Newport (January).
Visits France speaks at Lille.
Proposes establishment of Socialist
Daily Paper.
Attends International Socialist Con-
gress, Copenhagen (September).
General Election (Dacember). Merthyr
result :
E. R. Jones (L) 12,258
J. Keir Hardie (Lab) 11,507
J. H. Watts (C) 5,277
International Demonstration at the
Albert Hall, London (December).
1911.
Re-elected to I.L.P. National Council.
Railway Strike.
1912.
Visits America and Canada.
Attends International Socialist Con-
gress at Basle (November).
Re-elected Chairman I.L.P., Man-
chester Conference (March).
Attends International Women's Suf-
frage Alliance Congress at
Budapest (June).
Attends funeral of Rebel at Zurich
(August).
Visits Dublin at invitation of Irish
Transport Workers' Federation
(September).
Attends Congress German Social
Democratic Party at Jena
(September).
International Demonstration at the
Kingsvvay Hall, London (Decem-
ber).
1914.
Presides at Coming-of-Age Conference
of the I.L.P., Bradford (April).
Attends meeting International Socialist
Bureau, Brussels (July 29th).
Assassination of Jaures (July 3ist).
Germany declares War on Russia
(August ist).
Trafalgar Square Peace Demonstration
(August 2nd).
Speech in House of Commons (August
3rd).
War declared against Germany
(August 4th).
Hostile meeting at Aberdare (August
6th).
Responsive meetings in Merthyr and
other towns (October).
Last speech in Parliament (February
5th).
Passed peacefully away in presence of
his wife and daughter (September
2 6th).
Funeral at Maryhill Crematorium
(September 29th).
378
INDEX
Aberdarc 346, 348, 349
Aberdeen 127
Abraham, Wm. ("Mabon")
21, 28, 47, 136
Adler, Victor
60, 209, 210, 323, 329, 334
Adult Suffrage) League 215
Africa, South see South Africa.
"Age of Reason" 6
Albert Hall 260, 307
Albion Colliery Explosion 88, 138
Allan, Robert 153
Amendment to Address 77, 101
America, Hardie in no, 248, 274, 319
American Labour Day Committee no
Amsterdam Congress 208
Anarchism 122, 123
Anarchists in Spain 131
Anderson, W. C 330, 339, 373
Annbank brass band 14
Anseele, Eduard 48, 60
Anti-militarism 230
Anti-War Strike, 50, 124, 298;
German Socialists and 302
Applegarth, Robert 58
Arbroath 98
Arch, Joseph 62
Ardrossan Herald 18, 34
Armenia 286
Army Bill 243, 247
Arran 371
Asquith, H. H 145, 222, 263
Aftercliffe 91
Auchinleck School Board 31
Australia, Visit to 254, 255
Aveling, Dr 74
Ayrshire 12, 22, 26
Ayrshire Miners' Union 13, 19, 31, 95
Ayrshire Post 36
Bakunin 123
Balfour, Arthur 181, 187, 216, 292
Balkan States 321, 322
Ballachulish 194
Banes, Major 201
Bantock, Granville 336
Bantock, Mrs 336
Barnard Castle 198
Barnes, G. N 196, 225, 288, 354
Barr, John 223,318, 349
Barrowman, A 169
Basle 321
Bax, Belfort 212
Bebel, August ... 46, 60, 209, 275, 323
Beer, Max 278
Belfast 235, 333
Bell, R 157, 173
Bengal, Partition of 249, 252
Benn, J. W 103
Benson, T. D 198, 373
Bernstein, Eduard 121, 208, 273
Besant, Mrs. Annie 48, 59
Biddulph, Sir M 175
Bimetallism 115, 116
Birmingham 133, 149
Black, David 204
Black, W. F. 195, 204
"Black Rod" 175
Blackburn 143, 361
Blatchford, Robert
74, 106, 251, 271, 281, 282, 301
Boer War 143, 192
"Boggart Hole Clough" case ... 126
Bomba, King 286
Bondfield, Margaret 344
Boston Evening Transcript 367
Bordighera 205
Bowman, Guy 314
Bradford 45, 73, 162, 335
Bradford East, Candidature at ... 127
Bradlaugh, Charles 70
Brailsford, H. N 357, 358
Bright, John 70
Broadhurst, H 47, 95, 96
Brocklehurst, Fred 126
Brown, Africanus 206
Brown, Robert 28
Brussels 329, 339, 340, 346
Bryan, W. J 116
Bryce, James (Lord Bryce) 145, 152
379
J. KEIR HARDIE
PAGE
Budapest 329
Burgess, Joseph 72, 74,
99, 144, 150, 153, 166, 168, 262
Burns, John 48, 54,
59. 65, 72, 76, 79, 82, 95,
121, 145, 173, 178, 2O2, 221, 358
Burns, John (of Glasgow) 297
Burns, Robert 6, 19, 70
Burrows, H 59, 121, 259, 344
Burt, Thomas 21, 28, 47, 50, 59
Butte City, The Piper of 117
Buttery, A. W 74
Cadbury, Edward 165
Cadzow Collieries 9
Camelinat 336
Campbell, Rev. R. J 242, 259
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H.
145, 221, 263
Canada, Hardie in 248, 274, 319
Cannan, Gilbert 358
Canovas, Assassination of 131
"Capitalist War, A" 151
Cardiff Dock Bill 88
Carnegie, Andrew 66, 137
Carnegie, John 153
Carnot, President 88
Carrington, Lord 147
Carson, Sir Edward 333, 338
Carson, G 74, 105, 153, 372
"Cat and Mouse" Bill 326
Chamberlain, Joseph 199
Champion, H. H 55
Chapman, Miss 48
Chartered Company of S. Africa 146
Chicago no, 115, 319
Children, Meals for 227, 281
Chinese Labour in South Africa 192
Christie, G. S 74
Churchill, Winston ... 231, 294, 304, 309
Cilfynydd 88
City Socialist Circle i/i
Civil List 178
Clarion, The 271, 278, 282
Clark, Dr. G. B 44, 161
Clarke, Sir Edward 144
Clarke, William 128
Class War 210, 212, 218
Clitheroe by-election, 1902 193
Coates, Fred 297
"Collier Laddies" 98
Colne Valley 247
Combination Laws 62
"Coming of Age" Conference,
Bradford 326, 335
"Common Sense About the War" 358
PAGE
Communist League 60
Communist Manifesto 58, 213
Communists, Free 123
Compulsory Military Service 228, 293
Conference, Edinburgh, on
Labour Representation 153
Conference, Guildhall, on Unem-
ployment, 1903 196
Conference, I.L.P., see Inde-
pendent Labour Party.
Conference, Memorial Hall, on
labour representation, 154; on
unemployment 154
Congested Districts Board 225
Congo, Belgian 262, 286
Congress, International, London,
122 j Zurich, 122 ; Amsterdam,
208; Copenhagen, 298; Basle 321
Congress, Trades Union, see
Trades' Union Congress.
Connolly, James 56, 332
Conscription 228, 293
Conway, Katherine St. John
(Mrs. Bruce Glasier) 74, 336
Conybeare, C. A. V 21, 42
Co-operative Movement 27, 106, 184
Copenhagen Congress 298
Courtney, Leonard 161
Cowes 286
Craigie Hill 15, 22
Creimer, W. R 79
Crewe, Lord 222
Crooks, Will 198, 219, 226
Crowley, Fred 314
Cumnock 13, 15, 169, 197, 346
Cumnock News 17, 18, 34
Curran, Pete 56, 74, 247
Curzon, Lord 259
Czar, Visit to Cowes 286
Daily Citizen 358
Daily Herald 343
Davies, Di .... 139, 168, 223, 318, 349
De Beers 146
De Leon, Daniel 113
Debs, Eugene V 115, 274, 318
Defence of the Realm Act 362
Derby 235, 238
Despard, Mrs 344
Devonport, Lord 314
Dewsbury 262
Dickinson, Mr 238
Dilke, Sir Charles 103
Disarmament, Labour Party and 228
Dock Strike, Hull, 81 ; London,
54, 62, 314
380
INDEX
PAGE
Dixie, Lady Florence 40
Donaldson, Robert 297
Dowlais Ironworks 310
Dresden Conference of German
Party 208
Drew, W. H 74
Dryburgh, G 169
Dublin 98, 331
Duma, Socialist members of 368
Dundee 96, 150, 195, 262
Dundee Advertiser 195
Dunfermlinei u
Echo 104
Eddlewood 12
Edinburgh 27, 149, 150, 153, 283
Edinburgh Evening News 145
jEdwards, John 176
Egypt 288, 313
Eight Hours' Bill, Miners
21, 22, 28, 87, 96, 28l
Emergency Unemployment Bill... 281
lEngels, F. 213
Engineers' Lock-out 131
Entente Cordiale 228
Evangelical Union Church 8, 17
Fabian Society 59, 73, 157, 182, 210, 315
Factory Inspectors 81
Fair Wages Clause 310
Fawcett Association 80, 99
Pels, Mr 274
Fen wick, Charles 21, 28, 47, 59
Ferguson, John 42, 44
Fisher, Andrew 20, 254
Fisher, Lord 271
Fletcher, A. E 165
Ford, Isabella 198
Forson, Rev. A. M 373
Forward, The 259
"Fourth Clause, The" 106, 108
Franchise Act, 1884 20, 66
Francis, LI. 138, 163, 168, 223, 318, 349
Franck, Ludwig 373
Free Speech 22, 54, 125
Free Trade, Hardie on 200
French Socialists attitude to
International 208, 209
"From Serfdom to Socialism" ... 240
Gardner, Councillor Ben 86
"Gavroche" 204
General Election, 1895, I0 5. 109;
1900, 162, 174; 1906, 221;
1910, 290
PAGE
General Strike, 32 ; Anti-War,
50, 124, 298, 302
Geneva 228
George, Henry 65
George, Lloyd
145, 150, 162, 222, 259, 290, 309, 369
German Socialists and the Inter-
national, 208 ; anti-war strike,
302 ; Morocco, 312 ; Hardie at
Jena, Congress of, 333 ; and
the War, 340
Germany, Labour Party and, 228 ;
press campaign against, 271
Gilchrist, Alex 204, 372
Gladstone, W. E.
21, 42, 67, 71, 103, 286
Gladstone, Lord 331
Glasgow, 40, 73, 149, 157, 171, 259, 362
Glasgow Daily Mail 36
Glasgow Weekly Mail 10
Glasier, J. Bruce 44, 55,
99, 125, 126, 144, 146, 153, 157,
163, 182, 198, 233, 238, 258, 283,
321, 336, 339. 34 8 . 372, 373
jrlasier, Mrs. Bruce 74, 336
Glasier, Miss Lizzie 297
Glasse, Rev. J 205
Good Templars 7, 18
Gorst, Sir John 79, 103, 196
Gossip, Alex 297
Government, Socialist participa-
tion in 208
Graham, R. B. Cunninghame... 21,
44. 5 1 * 54. 59. 86, 251, 259, 344, 373
Grayson, Victor 247, 259,
261, 262, 266, 268, 276, 281, 283
Grey, Sir Edward
145, 286, 312, 328, 344, 348, 368
Guesde, Jules 60, 208
Guest, Keen & Nettlefold 310
Guildhall Conference on Unem-
ployment (1903) 196
(iuthrie, Arthur 18
Haase, H 340
Haddow, Sandy c6, 372
Haddow, W. M.
150, 153. 171, 204, 372
Haggard, H. Rider 133
Haldane, Lord
222 228, 247, 293, 304, 309
Hall, Leonard 107
Hamburg Dock Strike 131
Hamilton IO , 363
Harcourt, Sir William
71, 88, 101, 103, 108, 145
381
J. KEIR HARDIE
Hardie,
Hardie,
Hardie,
Hardie,
Hardie,
PAGE
Agnes 28, 187, 274
David i
Duncan 28, 371
George D .............. 86,
James ..................... 28,
372
271
Hardie, Mrs. J. Keir
13, 168, 274, 337, 37i
Hardie, James Keir
Boyhood I
First Trade Union meeting ... 2
Autobiographical Note 3
Trapper, pit pony driver,
hewer 5. 6 > 7
Joins Good Templars and
Evangelical Union Church ... 7
Dismissed as an agitator 8
Tobacconist and Stationer 10
Press correspondent 10
Lanarkshire Miners' Union 10
Miners' Agent
Marriage
Ayrshire Miners' Union 13, 31
On Staff of Cumnock News, 17, 34
Joins Liberal Association i
Lay Preacher J 9
Scottish Miners' Federation 20
Speech at Irvine 2
Class loyalty 24, 25
Founds The Miner 2Q
Mid-Lanark by-election 35
Scottish Labour Party 43
Resolutions at International
Conference, 1888 49
Impression of, by Cunninghame
Graham 5 1
At 1889 Congress (Second
International) 59 i
Elected for West Ham 64
Political independence 64
His Cloth Cap 7*
Amendment to the Address ... 77, 101
On Policy of the I.L.P., 1894 86
Protest on congratulatory
motion on birth of Duchess
of York's child 89
Views on Monarchy 89
At T.U. Congress 94
"Member for the Unemployed'^' 104
Opposition to "Fourth Clause" 106
Defeat at West Ham, 1895 108, 109
Visits America no
Bimetallist bribe offer n6
Financial relations with move-
ment
PAGE
Bardie, James Keir (continued)
As controversialist 129, 130
Christmas Message, 1897 132
As propagandist 134
Retires from I.L.P. Chairman-
ship 157
Tribute of Bruce Glasier 158
Elected for Merthyr 166
On Daath of Queen Victoria ... 176
Attitude to Monarchy ... 89, 178, 268
Socialism, Resolution in Parlia-
ment 1 86
Parents' Death 187
At Nevill's Court 189
In Paris *94
At Guildhall Conference on
Unemployment 196
On Socialist tactics ... 209, 211, 212
Distrust of Liberal Imperialists 228
Resolution on Women's Suffrage 231
Reception at Memorial Hall ... 232
Chairman Parliamentary Labour
Party 236
"From Serfdom to Socialism" 240
"Ragged" at Cambridge 242
Report on Army Bill P. 243
Breakdown in Health 244
Voyage round the world 247
"India : Impressions and Sug-
gestions" 2 5 2
Lord Rectorship nomination ... 259
At Albert Hall 260
In Nova Scotia 274
A week's work 282
Resignation from N.A.C 284
On underground agitation 288
Chairman of Labour Party 292
His love for children 296
At Copenhagen Congress 2qS
At Lille 303
Rhondda Valley Strike 34
Merthyr Election, 1910 35
Morocco Debate 3 12
Merthyr I.L.P. Conference .... 317
Revisits America 3 J 9
At Basle Congress 3 2 3
Support of Women's Movement 326
In Ireland 33 1
At Jena Congress 333
Speech on Outbreak of War ... 344
On Recruiting 35 2
Last Speech in Parliament 3 6 3
H9 l8 3
Tribute from Stepniak 121
Henderson, Arthur
382
INDEX
PAGE
Highland Land League ............ 40
Hill, John .............................. 369
"History of Labour Representa-
tion" .................................... 155
"History of our own Times" ... 54
Hobson, Charles ..................... 91
Hobson, J. A. ........................ 152
Hobson, S. G ...................... 70, 97
Hocking, Silas ........................ 148
Hodge, John , .......................... 169
Holland, Canon Scott ............... 148
Holytown ................................. 7
Home Colonies ........................ 78
Home Rule ............ 36, 42, 242, 338
Howell, George ........................ 58
Huddersfield ........................... 261
Hughes Family, The ............... 349
Hull Dock Strike ..................... 81
Hulton Colliery Disaster , ........... 307
Hutchison, Robert .................. 44, 56
Huysmans, Camille ............ 329, 336
Hyndman, H. M ................ 59
230, 259, 271, 275, 277, 281, 282, 301
Independent Labour Party ...43,
67. 7i,73, 97, 106, 139, 143, 161,
182, 200, 223, 283
I.L.P. Conferences, Bradford,
l8 93> 73 5 Manchester, 1894, 83 ;
Newcastle, 1895, 105; Birming-
ham, 1898, 133; Leeds, 1899,
140; Glasgow, 1900, 157; Brad-
ford, 1900, 162 ; Leicester, 1901,
183; Derby, 1907, 235, 238;
Huddersfield, 1908, 261 ; Edin-
burgh, 1909, 283; Merthyr, 1912,
317; Manchester, 1913, 326;
Bradford, 1914, 335 ; Norwich,
19*5, 367
I.L.P., Hardie on Policy of ...... 86
I.L.P., Title, proposed alteration 105
Independent Parliamentary La-
bour Group ........................... 156
India .................. 160, 248, 249, 262
"India: Impressions and Sugges-
tions" ................................. 252
"Indictment of the Class War"... 212
Industrial Unionists .................. 49
Insurance Bill ........................... 316
International, First ............... 61, 123
International, Second ............ 61,
208, 249, 342, 343
International Conference, London,
46; Paris, 59, 61
International Socialist Bureau
334, 339.
PAGE
International Socialist Congress :
Zurich, 1892, 122 ; London, 1896,
122 ; Amsterdam, 1904, 208;
Copenhagen, 1910, 298; Basle,
1912, 321
International Women's Suffrage
Alliance 329
International Working Men's
Association 58
Ireland ...42, 66, 98, 108, 225, 331, 338
Irish Party 179, 181
Irish Transport Workers' Federa-
tion 331
Irvine 22, 23
Irving, Dan 339
Japan 210
Jarrovv y '247
Jaures, Jean 208, 209, 212
301, 307, 323, 324, 334, 340, 373
Jena 333
"Jim" short story 297
Johannesburg 256, 257, 330
Johnson, Francis 198
Johnson, William 74
Johnston, Thomas 259
Jones, Edgar 304
Jowett, F. W 74
99, 198, 224, 336, 349, 373
Justice 129
Kautsky, Karl 209, 275
Keir, John , 153
Keir, Mary i
Kennedy, Charles 44
Kennedy, J. C , 74
Kenney, Annie 231
Kenworthy, John K 90
King Edward. ..177, 201, 263, 269, 294
King's garden party 268
King's Visit to Russia 264
Kippen, The Misses 69, 70, 235
Kitchener, Lord 352
Knights of Labour, U.S. A 55
"Kopje" 145
Kropotkin 121, 122
Kruger, President 206
Labour Day Committee, American no
Labour Electoral Association
24, 39, 4i, 55
Labour Exchanges 196
Labour Institute, Bradford 73
Labour Leader 30, 75, 85,
93, 113, 119, 120, 131, 132, 135,
136, 141, 203, 285, 350, 365
383
J. KEIR HARDIE
PAGE
Labour Members' salaries 283
Labour Parliamentary Group,
Hardie's Resolution for 156
Labour Party
22, 97, i53 17. 224, 227, 228,
235, 244, 282, 287, 292, 306, 330
Labour Party for Scotland 43
"Labour Representation, History
of" 155
Labour Representation Committee
i53> J 57 I6l l62 J 73 ^2, 193.
199, 210, 223, 235
Ladysmith 257
Lanark, Mid 35, 85
Lanark, Mid, Election Address 37
Lanark, N.E 186
Lanarkshire Miners' Union 9
Land Restoration League 65,70
Langley, Batty 91
Lansbury, George 306, 318, 343
Larkhall 44
Larkin, Jim 332
Law, Bonar 225, 315, 338
Lawrence, Mrs. Pethick 327
L'dzzari 48
Ledebour, Georg 275, 301
Leeds 140, 149, 216, 217
Leeds Mercury 179
Leicester 99, 183
Leon, Daniel de 113
Leopold, King 262
Lewis, Matt , 347, 349
Liberal Imperialism 228, 267
Liberal-Labour Leaders 95
Liberal Party 18,
21, 23, 24, 26, 35, 64, 86, 87,
91, 108, 152, 223, 228, 267, 348, 363
Liberal Programme, Nottingham 37
Liebknecht, William 46, 60, 213
Lille 303
Lipton, Sir T 137
Lister, John 74
Littlewood, France 144.
Liverpool in
Llanelly 309
Lloyd, H. D no
Lloyd George, see George.
London City Socialist Circle 171
London Dock Strike 62, 314
Long, Walter 217
Loreburn, Lord 145, 222, 358
Lowe, David 87, 141, 150, 195, 204
"Mabon" 21, 28, 47, 136
McArthur, Archibald 297
Macarthur, Mary 215, 289, 344
PAGE
McCarthy, Justin 54
MacDonald, Alex 10, n
MacDonald, J 155
MacDonald, J. Ramsay 39,
91, 92, 99, 144, 146, 155, 157,
183, 198, 200, 205, 209, 224,
244, 247, 263, 280, 283, 312,
344, '345, 348, 349, 353, 357, 373
MacDonald, Margaret 238, 313
Mackley, Tom 319
McNab, Clarice 297
Macpherson, Duncan 43
Macpherson, Fenton 131
Malatesta, Enrico 121
Manchester .%. 32, 126, 135, 149
Manchester Guardian 145
Mann, Tom 84,
86, 123, 125, 127, 131, 134, 314
Manningham Mills 62
Martineau Unitarian Church .... 368
Martyn, Caroline 125
Marx, Karl 58, 123
"Marxian" 202, 204
Marxians and Revisionists in
Germany 208, 209
Mason, Stephen 21, 35
Match Girls' Union 48
Maxton, James 354
Maxwell, J. Shaw 44, 74
Meals for Children 227, 281
Memorial Hall Conference on
Labour Representation, 154 ; on
Unemployment 154
Merthyr 138, 162,
167, 224, 292, 305, 317, 348, 357
Merthyr Pioneer 311, 348, 365
Middle Class, Workers and 213
Mid-Lanark, see Lanark, Mid.
Militarism, Hardieon, 177, 229, 293,317
Militarism, Labour Party and ... 244
Military in Strike Areas
Si, 137, 304, 309
Mills, W. T 307
.Milwaukee 115
Miner, The 20, 26, 29, 33, 35
Miners' Association, Hardie and 94
Miners' Union, Ayrshire 13, 19, 31, 95
Miners' Eight Hours Day Bill
21, 22,. 28, 87, 96, 28l
Miners' Federation of Great
Britain 33, 281, 293
Miners' National Union 32
Miners', Scottish, Strike (1894) 88, 93
Miners', Welsh, Strikes 136, 304
Mines Bill 28
Mines, Nationalisation of 93, 94
384
INDEX
PAGE
Mines, Safety in 294
Minimum Wage 7 8
Mitchell, Goorge 44
Molkenbuhr 37
Monarchy, Hardie and ... 89, 178, 268
Montrose Burghs 262 |
Morel, E. D 35 8
Morgan, Pritchard 166, 167, 291
Morley, John (Lord Morley)
108, 145, 161, 181, 222, 358, 365
Morning Leader 145
Morning Post 128
Morocco 312
Morris, William
56, 59, 121, 223, 318, 349
Morse, Sydney H 191
Mountain Ash 357
Muller, Herman 336
Municipal Socialism, Hardie on 184
Murdoch, John 43
Murphy, W. M 332
Naoroji, D 211
Nationalisation of Mines 93, 94
National Labour Party 39
"National Socialist Party" 105
National Stop-the-War Commit-
tee (1900) 149
National Union of Women's Suf-
frage Societies 328
Nazarbeck 121
Neil, James 19, 169, 373
Nevill's Court 189
Newcastle 105
Newspaper, Daily, Scheme for ... 305
New York 112
New York World 114
Nineteenth Century 99, 211
North British Railway Bill 281
Northern Daily Telegraph 361
Norwich 94, 97, 367
Nottingham Liberal Programme 37
Nova Scotia 274
O'Connor, T. P 102, 128
Odger, George 58
O'Grady, James 265
Old Age Pensions 157, 227
Old Quarry 10
"Overtoun Exposure" 140
Overtoun, Lord 141
Outhwaite, R. L 330
Pankhurst, Adela 231
Pankhurst, Mrs. 126, 206, 327
Paris 59, 61, 339
PAGE
Parker, Evan 347, 349
Parker, James 144, 157, 198
Parliament, Trade Unions and ... 96
Parliamentary Committee of
Trades Union Congress 155
Parnell, Charles Stewart 69, 70
Parnellite Tactics 83
"Patriotism Measured in Millions" 366
Pease, E. R 157
Penny, John
133, 144, 153, 162, 163, 165, 167, 198
Penrhiwceiber 357
Penrhyn Quarries r.r.-n^ 130
Penty, A. J ... 191
Penydarren 138, 163
Phillips, Dr. Marion 344
Phillips, J. W 37
Pioneer, Merthyr 311, 348, 365
Pittsburg- 66
Ponsonby, Arthur 267, 358
Portsmouth, Lord 222
Postal Servants 99
Preston 162, 167
Pretoria Pit Disaster 307
Priestman, Arthur 165
Primitive Methodist Church 368
Progressive Review 128
Punch 250
Queen Victoria 88, 176
Quelch, Harry 56, 157
"Races of the World" 7
Radcliffe, Mr 223
Railway Bill, North British 281
Railway Strike, 1911, Military in
308, 309
Rand Mines 257
Rebel Movement 60
Reform Bill 327
Reformers 1 Year Book 176
Reid, Sir R. (Lord Loreburn)
145, 222, 358
Resolution for Socialist Common-
wealth (H. of C. 23.4.01) 186
Resolution on forming 1 Labour
Party, 22 ; on Labour repre-
sentation, 154 ; on Parlia-
mentary Labour Group, 156 ;
on War and General Strike, 298
Restriction of Output 31
Reval 263
Review of Reviews 145
Revisionists, German 208, 209
Rhondda, Lord 167
JRhondda Valley, Strike in ... 304, 308
385
J. KEIR HARDIE
PAGE
Richard, Gerault 194
Richard, Henry 167
Richardson, Tom
306, 346, 347, 349, 371
"Rights of Man" 60
Right to Work 227
Roberts, Lord 229, 293
Robertson, Chisholm 28, 51, 74
Rogers, E. W 157
Rollit, Sir Albert 103, 196
Rosebery, Lord 71, 85, 99, 145
Royalty, Hardie and, 88, 89, 178, 268
Russell, Alfred 297
Russell, Bertrand 358
Russia 210, 228,
247, 261, 263, 267, 286, 293, 363, 368
Russian Seamen's Union 368
Rutherglen 140
St. Davids, Lord 37
Salaries of Labour Members ... 283
Salvation Army m, 197, 243
Sambourne, Linley 250
Samuel, Herbert 129
Sanderson, Mrs. Cobden 259
San Francisco 116
Sarajevo ,... 339
Scanlon, W 169
Schnadhorst, Mr 41
School Children, Feeding of ... 227, 281
Schreiner, Cronwright 150
Schreiner, Olive 258
Scott Memorial Church 368
Scottish Home Rule Association 39
Scottish Labour Party ... 43, 59, 73
Scottish Leader 36
Scottish Miners' Strike 88, 93
Scottish Miners' Federation n, 20, 26
Scottish Parliamentary Labour
Party 44, 71
Second International, see Inter-
national.
Serbia 339
"Serfdom to Socialism, From" ... 240
Settle, Alfred 74
Sex Equality, Political 214
Sexton, J 74
Shackleton, David 193, 219, 226
Shallard, S. D 125, 166
Shaw, George Bernard
2 5, 74, 259, 281, 358, 361
Shawfield Chemical Works, Strike
at 140
Shieldmuir .. 10
Shipton, George 47
Simcox, Miss Edith 47
PAGE
Sinn Fein , 225
Sliding Scale, Miners' 137
Small, W 74
Smart, H. Russell 74, 144, 153
Smillie, Robert 41, 44, 56,
74, 85, 93, 150, 153, 186, 336, 344, 372
Smith, Adolph 48
Smith, Frank, 70, 91, in, no, 371
Smith, F. E 333, 33 8
Snowden, Philip 98, 99
144, 146, 183, 186, 198, 224, 233
244, 252, 283, 289, 290, 328, 349
Snowden, Mrs 339
Social Democratic Federation
59, 7 1 , 73, 123, 129, 162, 182, 210, 233
Socialism and the Labour Party 292
Socialism, Continental, and Class
War 2I 8
Socialism, Hardie's Attitude to
doctrinaires 130
Socialism, Hardie's Resolution
for, in Parliament 182
Socialism, International, Albert
Hall Demonstration 307
Socialism, Municipal, Hardie on 184
Socialist League 27, 59
Socialist Sunday Schools 297
Socialist Tactics, Hardie on
209, 211, 212
Socialists, German, and Anti-War
Strike 302
Socialists, German, and Morocco 312
Sons of Labour 55
South Africa, Chartered Com-
pany of 146
South Africa, Hardie in 256
South African War 143, 192
South Africa, Labour Party
and 287, 330
Southport 41
Spain, Anarchists in 131
"Splotch of Red, A" 101
Stacy, Enid 125
Standard, The 165
Stanhope, Philip 193
Stanton, C. B 165, 224
Star, The 36
Steel Smelters' Association 40
Stepniak 120
Stewart, Major 309
Stewart, W. ("Gavroche") 204
Stockport 268
Stokes, J 343
Stonelake, Councillor, 224, 318, 346, 349
Strike, General, Against War
50, 124, 298, 302
386
INDEX
PAGE
Strikes, Military and, 81, 137, 304, 309
Suffrage, Women's
214, 230, 235, 237, 289, 327
Taff Vale Case 183, 186
Tariff Reform 199
Taylor, Tom 164
Territorial Army Bill 243, 247
Thomas, D. A. (Lord Rhondda) 167
Thompson, A. M 165
Thome, W 140, 347
Threlfall, T. R 39, 41
Tillett, Ben 74, 84, 97, 314
Times, The 128
Tonypandy 304
Tory Gold 36
Trades Disputes Act 227
Trades Union Parliamentary Fund 96
Trade Unions and "Fourth
Clause" 106
Trades Union Congress, 45, 59, 94, 154
Trevelyan, C. P 358
Trevelyan, Sir G 42
Truck System 28
Udston Colliery Disaster 33
Uitlanders 144
Ulster Volunteers 338
"Underground Russia" 120
Unemployed Workmen Bill ... 218, 220
Unemployment, 63, 68, 77, 86,
100, 118, 194, 216, 275, 281, 291
Unemployment, Guildhall Con-
ference, 1903 196
Unemployment Insurance 227
Unified Socialist Party (France)... 209
Union of South Africa, Draft
Constitution 287
United Irish League 42
U.S.A. Electoral Methods 115
U.S.A., Hardie in no, 274, 319
Vandervelde, Emil
209, 210, 301, 307, 334, 340
verses 318, 319
Vjenna 322, 329, 334, 339
Vincent, Col. Howard 79
Volkhovsky 121
Vollmar 60
Vorwarts
PACE
2 7 8
Wakefield
Wallace, Dr. Alfred Russel
Wallace, Bruce
Wallace, Rev. James
"War, A Capitalist"
War Against Poverty Campaign
War, Anglo-German Efforts to
Stem 272,
War, the European 334,
War, Hardie on
"War of Steel and Gold,' The"
War, South African 143,
Waterford
Wedderburn, Sir William
Weekly Sun
Weekly Times &> Echo
Weir, J. Galloway
Weir, John
Wells, H. G 259, 280, 354,
Welsh Miners' Strikes 136,
Western Mail ,
West Ham 65, 86, 87, 108,
West Ham, Hardie 's Election
Address
Whitehaven Disaster
Wilkie (Shipwrights)
Williams, Robert
Williams, Robert, F.R.I.B.A....I39,
Wilson, J. Havelock 76
Wilson, K. J
Wilson, Miss Lillie
Wilson, Rev. Stitt
Women's Enfranchisement Bill...
Women's Social and Political
Union 231, 236,
Women's Suffrage
. 214, 230, 235, 237, 289,
Woolwich
Workman's Times
Wright, Willie 136,
1 86
259
70
323
315
275
133
358
192
98
23
102
90
40
28
355
304
348
140
67
294
343
19!
, 82
150
259
215
238
327
198
72
139
York 149
York, Duchess of 89
Young Egyptian Party 288
Young, John 205
Zurich 122, 331
387
14 DAY USE
RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED
LOAN DEPT.
This book is due on the last date stamped below,
on the date to which renewed
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.
or
LD 21A-50m-9,'58
(6889slO)476B
General Library
University of California
Berkeley
LD 21-100m-8,'34
1959
Y.L
RETURN TO
BOKKOWBD
LOAN DEPT
LD 62A-50m-7,'65
(F5756slO)94l2A
General Library .
University of Caliform.
Berkeley