The I.L.P.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 5, Issue 180, 15 July 1914, Page 8

The I.L.P.

By J. KEffi, HARDIE

The "Coming of Age" of the Independent Labour Party has raised a good deal of discussion concerning its origin. Beforo dealing with thia point, however, let mc say that it is very difficult for the younger generation to realise the stato of political thought thirty or thirty-five years ago. The old doctrine of laisser faire was then dominant. Part of the doctrine of the Manchester School of Economics was freedom of all interference from the State. Free trade and freo contract went together aa part of one whole. EJlaborate. essays were circulated conitantly proving that .progress was dependent upon the freedom of the individual in the great struggle for existence. Poverty, it was then said, was duo entirely to moral delinquencies or physical defects, and any interference from the State in the way of assisting the poor was only an encouragement to the mto continue io their evil coursed. So far as I know, it had not bhen been even suggested by any responsible statesman that the State might interfere with such things as sweating, long hours, or low wages, whilst even factory and mine legislation for safety purposes was lookedi at askance, where it was not utterly condemned. It must not he thought that this applied only to the employing classes. I have heard the same doctrines advocated and defended! from many a Trade Union platform, and I oan remember quite well how some af the more enlightened of the younger colliers in the pits upheld and justified these soulless dogmas. Even then ,however, there were a few rebel spirits in revolt against Manchesterism. But they were isolated! units, without any cohesion or organiation of any kind. What follows applies particularly to Scotland, although as I know by my own experience at miners' conferences, and such like gatherings, it was equally true of England and Wales. As a, matter of fact, a Miners' Conference in. 1887 seriously discussed whether I and two .other Scottish minors' delegates should not be expelled for having circularised members of Parliament in favour of the insertion of an eight-hour clause in ihe Mines Regulation Act, which was then before Parliament*

In April 1888 I fought my first Parlamentary contest, and 1 , arising out of that, the Scottish Labour, Party was formed in August of the same year. The conference at which the Party was formed l was a very miscellaneous assembly. Several Communists of the William Morris school took part, but no far as I can recall, not a singlo Trado Union was represented. As showing, however, what was in the minds of' the pioneers of those days, I submit the programme adopted lor the Scottish Labour Party:— 1. Adult Suffrage, with abolition of plural voting. 2. Triennial Parliaments; elections to be all on one day.

4 The Origin of a Socialist Party

(From the Socialist Review). 3. Simplification of Registration Law?, so as to prevent removal from ono constituency to another disfranchising a voter. 4. Payment of Members by the State, and of official election expenses from the rates. 5. Home Rule for each separate nationality or country in the British Empire, with an Imperial Parliament for Imperial affairs. 6. Abolition of the House of and all hereditary offices. 7. A Second 1 Ballot. 8. Nationalisation of Land and Minerals. ' 9. Labour Legislation: (a) An Eight-. Hour Bill; (b) Abolition of the p'cscnt Poor Law System and substitution of State Insurance to provide for sickness, accident, death, or old age; (c) Arbitration Courts, with power to settle disputes, and fix a minimum wage; (d) Weekly pays; (c) Homestead Law to protect furniture and tools to the value of £20 from seizure for debt; (f) Application of the Factories and Workshops Acts to all premises, whether public or private, in which work is performed. 10. Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic. 11. No war to be entered uppn without the consent of the House of Commons. 12. Free- Education, Boards to have power to provide food for the children. 13. Disestablishment. 14. Reform in tho system of civil government, and abolition of sinecure offices and pensions. 15. Simplification and codification of the civil and criminal law. 16. State acquisition of railways, waterways, and tramways. 17. National banking system, and the issue of State money only. 18. Cumulative income tax, beginning at £300 per annum. In these days most of the foregoing items are commonplace, and some of them havo actually found their embodiment in legislation. It is customary for present-day Liberals to claim credit for such measures as Payment of Members, the Miners' Eight-hour Bill, Old Age Pensions, Arbitration Courts, the Extension of the Factories and Mines Acts. Free Education and the provision of meals for school children, ■ and cumulative 'income tax, but in the days when tho Scottish Labour Party set out to pioneer these proposals, the most contemptuous and scurrilous opposition to them came from Liberal speakers and the Liberal press. A manifesto was issued to the workers of Scotland, explaining the objects of the- new party, and the following extracts will give an idea of the lines upon which it was proposed to proceed:— "Hitherto the workers of Scotland have been' kept divided in tho political field, fighting against each other under the ba.nners of Whig or Tory, objects which, with tho exception of

such acts as those already mentioned, have been of no real value to Labour. If any workman doubts this, let him figure out how much hia actual condition would be improved if tho whole programme of the Liberals or of th» Conservatives, or both together, wero mado law to-morrow. Some may argue that by and by tho so-called "party of progress" will adopt Labour reforms as part of its policy, as it has adopted Home Rule for Ireland. Our reply is that when men die of hunger, as they aro doing to-day, no delay can be permitted, and that if the workers of Scotland want Labour legisuation they must, as the Irish have done, form themselves into a concrete political party, and givo the other political parties no rest and peace until their demands are conceded. "Tho first step to this end is the formation of a distinct, separate, and Independent Labour Party, which will rally at the polls th 9 forces of the workers and of those who sympathise with our efforts. . . . "It has been by acting in thia way that the Irish people have secured the almost undivided attention of Parliament, and have obtained relief from some of their greatest grievances. It

is by acting in this way that -we in Great Britain shall make Parliament alter the present condition of affairs, iv which every twentieth inhabitant is a pauper, a million of men ar© out of work, one-fifth of the community i» insufficiently clad, what aro known as starvation diseased are rifo amongst largo classes, and in which one-third to one-half of the families of tho country are huddled together six in a room. In the name of those who suffer from these evils we call on you to enrol yourselves in the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party, and to assist it in carrying its programme at the next election iv your division." This may not seem very revolutionary in theso days, but could thoso who may be inclined to criticise it have sat down with tho Executive of that faroff time, men with no prestige or standing, with no money, with no organisation, and with apparently the whole world against them, they would realise that »t meant much even to go bo far as our manifesto flent. I waijt espadally to call attent'on to the fact that in the above manifesto, the title "Independent Labour Party" is, so far as I know, first used in any printed document.