'LABOUR MAN’S KNIGHTHOOD

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1931, Page 9

'LABOUR MAN’S KNIGHTHOOD

LATE SECRETARY FOR MINES.

SIR BEN TURNER'S CAB EER.

Sir Ben Turner, late Secretary for Mines, who has been knighted on the occasion of the King’s birthday, is 07 years of age, is a Yorkshireman and he has worked in the cotton mills most of his life. From the early days when his pay : was 30s a* week and he had a large family to keep, he began to get together a library of literary, historical, economic and sociological works. He also took a keen interest in the Yorkshire and Lancashire dialect writers, and eventually became one of their num,her. Becoming a member of the Weavers’ Union in 1883,, he took part in the Huddersfield strike, out of which •grew the "Textile Workers’ Union, the heavy woollen branch of which: is practically his creation. In' 1886 he was elected an official of hid union, and next year became a member of the general executive. Eventually he rose to be president of the National Union of Textile Workers,'.which, he. bad done so much to build up, aiid Which lie had represented at several international conferences.

Sir Ben Turner, who joined the Social Democratic Federation in 1886 and, the Fabian Society- .in. 1889, was one of the founders of the Independent Labour Party in 1893. He was chairman of the National Labour Party in 1912 and presided over the historic Birmingham conference. In addition to serving on the school board and <£ie town council of Batley, of which he was, in 1922, elected M.P. "for Batley and Morley, retaining his seat till 1924. '.He was- mie of the earliest visitors to Russia after the revolution and brought back an extraordinary letter from Lenin telling British Labour what to do.

In September, 1927, Sir Ben Turner, who had attended over thirty Trades Union Congresses, was elected chairman of the General Council. At the Edinburgh Congress, he made a strong appeal for industrial conciliation instead of strife. A firm believer in disarmament, he urged workers not to take part in future wars. On the accession to power of the Labour Government, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Mines.