JOSEPH ARCH

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 103, 3 May 1919, Page 14

JOSEPH ARCH

PIONEER LABOUR LEADER

REMINISCENCES,

"It happened that I first saw Joseph Arch on the very day that he founded the National Agricultural Labourers' Union," writes J Penne in the Christian World, London. "Shouting in the street drew me to the door. A band of about a hundred men were marching to the market square, headed by a squarebuilt man of middle height, with a massive head. 'That's Joe Arch and the labourers,' said a neighbour. Soon the sound of 'Joe's' oratory was ringing through the market square, proclaiming | the revolt of the labourers—a revolt that was as if a brood of white mice had turned against a ferocious tabby cat. The squires and farmers of tho country wore dumbfounded. It meant the ruin of agriculture, the breaking down of all social order, the letting in of revolution through a breach in the oenturies-old dykes. "Joseph Arch was a Primitive Methodist, and in his cottage at Barford there was a small library, on a few deal shelves. The literature largely consisted of Blue Books, reports, books on the land question, with some favourite roligious books. Mr. Arch was a good talker, with a 1 fund of homely stories, a quiet sense of humour, and whon his indignation was moved he simply blazed. The leading 'Primitive' in the village was a gardener. Said Mr. Arch : 'Have you been in old Ben's house? It would be a shame to use such a place even for a dog-kennel. But what can he do? There isn't" a landowner who will part with a bit of land to put up any decent cottages. Such things have got to be altered.' A SIMPLE SERMON. "As a young journalist I went to live ,at Dudley, and beard 'Joe' preach in a mining village (the writer .of the article proceeds). The sermon was on the Good Shepherd, and there was a dramatic and deeply moving little wordpicture of a shepherd finding a halffrozen sheep in the snow and carrying it to shelter, pressed for warmth against his bosom. The ' language, in its unstudied simplicity, was the Bible English of Bright and Spurgeon, and there was something of ; the same mellow sweetness in the tones of the voice. Chatting with him once on preaching, he chuckled as .he told of a dandy town preacher engaged at a village chapel for harvest thanksgiving. The townsman sought to introduce local colour and atmosphere. He dealt with the whole process of corn-growing from the sowing to the reaping. Afterwards, well satisfied with himself, the preacher went into the vostry to await congratulations. The old society steward was nearly doubled with laughter. 'What are you laughing at?' asked the preacher. 'Lord, mister/ was the reply, 'do you know what you forgot? You left out the manure. You would never get any crops on this land .without manure.' UNION'S INGRATITUDE. "Sir George White succeeded Mr. Arch as M.P. in N.'VV. Norfolk, and Mr. Arch was hugely pleased wh£i one day Sir George dropped in for a long chat. Said Mr. Arch to me one day, talking about the Labourers' Union: 'I could do something witli the men of the Eastern Counties and tho North. The trouble was always with the men of the South and the West. You lifted them up, but you had to hold them up. As soon as you loosed them they fell down like an empty potato sack.'

"At this time he was very bitter over the dissolution of the union. A cry had been started that he was living in luxury—on £3 a week—at the expense of the labourers, whereas he had to pay for lodgings in London during the Parliament season, and to maintain a bedridden wife at Barford. He received a notice, witli a cheqne for a fortnight's salary, telling him that it would be the last cheque he would get, and tKat, at a committee called without his knowledge, the union had been dissolved. No wonder he was soured."