MR. PHILIP. SNOWDEN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 5 January 1928, Page 7

MR. PHILIP. SNOWDEN.

HIS VARIED ACTIVITIES. The Labour Party and the Independent- JUabour Party in Great Britain are two distinct organisations, the hahour Party having been formed in FJriJ witii a total membership oi at 5,931, which has since grown to something m the vicinity of four millions, while the independent body was formed some years earlier, but has never attained anything like the membership of the newer organisation, its total membership never having exceeued 35,ULX). The independent I. about Party is not very greatly different irom the Lauour Barty in its platform and propaganda, though it has probaoly paid greater attention to the educational sitie of politics, holding summer schools at wnicii various phases or .Socialist, polities are discussed. Ever since its inception in 1893 the socalled independent party has continued its association with t-lie Labour Partyproper and the Communist international, though it- has been very largely free of the disputations with Communism which have commanded a good deal of the attention of the larger movement and the local Labour Parties affiliated to it

Mr. Philip Snowden, who has resigned from the Independent Labour rany, is now 63 years old, and is a I'orksliireman by birth. Educated at an elementary school, he read wisely, and finally became a cierk in the Customs and Excise Department. He joined the Independent Labour Party the year following its foundation, becoming one of the most effective speakers, and attaining to the cliairmanship from 1963 to J.9J6, and from 1917 to 1926. His first parliamentary attempts, tor Keighley and Blackburn, f ailed, but in 1966 he was returned for the latter electorate in the Labour interests. In the House oi Commons he immediately made his mark, especially in regard to financial matters. When war broke out in 1914 he was on a visit to New Zealand and Australia, but when he returned to England he immediately ranged himself alongside his leader, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, sharing much of the latter’s unpopularity which resulted from their attitude in regard to the war. Air. Snow--1 den was defeated in the 1918 election, out was sent back to' Parliament for Colne Valley four years later, which seat he held with increased majorities in 1923 and 1924, while his apjxiintment as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the first Labour Government met with approval from all sides. In his Budget, introduced in April, 1924, Mr. Snowden went a long way to redress the burden of taxation on the poor by his reduction in the food duties, and by making provision in his contingent Old Age Pensions Act for the removal of the oppressive features of the thrift disqualification, while limited to some extent by the commitments of his predecessor. At the same time he stood fast to' the Free Trade principles of which lie had been so doughty a champion in earlier years, by repealing the McKenna duties, and terminating the duties imposed under the 1922 Safeguarding of Industries Act. Later in the session lie introduced plans to relieve unemployment, and in August, 1924, he consulted with the bankers in connection with the proposed German loan, which, was successfully floated in the following October. Mr. Snowden’s power and success, both in the Labour movement and outside, are due as much to' gifts of cluyacter ;as of brain. A«i a speaker he is equally powerful to-day on the Opposition benches as lie was as a Minister a little while back. Most of his lire has been spent in the service of Socialism, and he is also a. powerful advocate of the equal rights of women and of temperance. tn the promotion of these causes, as in hi® work for peace and in his opposition to Communism, Mr. Snowden lias been notably assisted by his wife, herself a speaker and writer of wide appeal. She rvas Ethel Annakin, o_f Harrogate, and they were married in 1905. Mr. Snowden was a. member of tli© Liquor Control Board during the Great War, and has served on Rb'yal Commissions on the' Civil Service, canals, and venereal disease. He is also a fellow o.f the Royal Statistical Society, and his books, pamphlets, and articles on social and economic questions are known in many lands.