Socialists in High Places

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 12, 16 September 1908, Page 22

Socialists in High Places

By

FRITZ CUNLIFFE-OWEN.

Many Blue-bloods of England and the Continent are Enrolled under the Red Banner 'and are Aggressive in Propaganda.

P\ ri:i< lANS figure largi-lx in the front rank- of socialism, and e\ch o| anarchx : ami although the of Marlborough has st rviiuoimk dallied the intention imputed to her of following the still ma rvelloimlx beaut iful Countess <d’ War wick into the ramp of the foes of the existing ordei of things, yet t here are plentx of other duke- and duchesses, primes and priiirr>-.cs. members of the I’.iiti'li peerage and of the continental

nobility, and even scions of the reigning lion-c- of Europe who are enrolled under I m* red banner. What their motives max have been in thus allying t hem-elves with the enemies of their caste, it is dillirldt to define collectively. IX SOME INSTANCES IT IS MERELY VANITY, the desire to attract public attention, and to play a role: in others, (he anxiety

to command the inlluencv of what promises to dex clop into one oi the powers of the land. Then, again, there are those who have cither been embittered by a real or fan cied injurv at the ha mis of the reigning house or government, or who have been led by crime or poverty to desert to the enemv. ami to seek refuge with the forces of disorder. Finally, there arc the nobles whose socialistic and anarchistic opinions are the result of personal conviction, ami of the

contemplation of the sufferings of their fellow creatures. This latter group of socialists is the most deserving of attention ami of interest. since they alone have sacrificed wealth, and. in many eases, rank, position. and even liberty, to convictions based on sentiments of sympathy for the down trod den masses. Among them >s the only son of the multi-millionaire Genoese banker and contractor, the late Duke of Galliera. xx ho. at his death, left a fortune esti-

mated at nearly one hundred million dollars. The old duke's son refused to touch the money insisting that his widowed mot tier should devote the remaining years of her life to distributing it among the poor. His socialistic convictions likewise prompt cd him to decline the inheritance of his father's ducal title, and he continued to live in tin* quietest and most unassuming fashion, in a three-room apartment in the Quartier Latin at Paris, earning his livelihood as a teacher, under the name of Professor Ferrari. At his mother's death, a few years ago. it was found that she had fultilled his wishes with regard to the distribution of his father's colossal fori une. She bad made a disposal of everything save an annuity of two thousand dollars a year, which in compliance with her dying request. he consented to accept, and which he now uses for purposes of socialistic propaganda ami. above all. for charity. Very similar to this was the course adopted by the late Lord Wentworth. He was tin- eldest son of the poet Byron's daughter Ada. and of her husband. the Earl of Lovelace. Although possessed of a seat in the House of Lords in his own right, and of a large fortune, he suddenly disappeared from London society, and from public view ami was found, several years later, dead, at Deptford. where he had lived all that time working as a carpenter among the most humble surroundings and in relative poverty, with no one of his neighbours possessing the slightest idea as to his identity. His younger brother, the late Earl of Lovelace, likewise considered it to be his duty to work during several years for his living as a “navvy,” or day labourer; and he could be seen wielding his pick and wheeling his barrow along with other burly labouring men. during the con struct ion of certain portions of the London ami South Western Railroad. He died last year, not long after having published a most extraordinary and sensational attack upon the memory of his grandfather, the poet, in connection with the latter's treatment of Lady Byron. Only two years ago. the Hon. Charles Uster, sole surviving son ami heir of Lord Ribblesdale. made a public profession of his socialistic opinions. TTe is a nephew of Herbert Asquith, the prime minister; and on his father’s death

WILL. NOLENS VOLENS. BECOME A PEER OF THE REALM. and invested with the possession of great entailed estates. extending over thousands of broad acres, including Gisburn Park, near ( litheroe. which has been in his family for over live hundred years. Unlike Professor Ferrari, the only son of the late Duke of Galliera. the coming Lord Ribblesdale will have no power to

decline the succession to the title- ami honour- of hi- father on the latter’s death. or to alienate the (‘states. There will be. however, nothing in the \va\ of hi- following the example of the Hon. Nan Herbert, sister of Lord Lucas. Having become a convert to the

I niver-al Brotherhood Society, pre-tded over h\ the "Purple Mother,” Mr-. Ixa theriue A. linglev. -In- ha- now e-ta bli-hed a -rhool and -cttlcmeiit .it Bel I V wood, the pi<tureM|Ue place in the New Fore-t. which -he inherited from her father. It i- a -chool on the -aim* lines a- the (•lie with which -he wa- connected near Santiago, in ( üba. and at Point Loma, in California. In the event of the death without t —mof Lord Lucas, she will Im-coiiic a peel ess of the realm in her own right, aBaroiie-- Luca-. And she. tooo. will have no alternative but to a—nine her rank being deprived by law of her statu- aa commoner, through the inheritance which -he is powerle-s to decline. Earl Russell i- ju-t at present IHE ONIA ENPoNEN I OF sot I \Lls\| IN IHE Hol <E Ol LORDS. which -(»nie years ago. sitting a- a high court of ju-tice. condemned him to a term oi imprisonment for bigamy. He had married in America the lady who hadlicF hccHine. in the eve- of tie- English law. hi- countess. Lord Russell ha- no children l-y either hi- lornier or pre-cut marriage, and on hi- death hi- earldom and other title-, along with his -eat in the House of Lord-, will go to hi- brother, the Hon. Bertrand Russell, a -oeialist like himself, and the husband of an American woman, daugh ter of Robert Pearsall Smith, of Phila delphia. While the I low. Nan Herbert, the ( oimte-- of Warwick, and the ( oinite--Russell make public profession of social ism. ami ent bnsia-t i< ally advocate it - doctrines, then* arc many other- who sympathise with the movement, especially with those phase- thereof which have in view tin* re-pon-ihi lit \ of tin state for the relief of destitution and for the material welfare of the masses. I. \D\ HENRY SOMERSET. is well known in the I nit<‘.| States through her enthu-ia stic advocacy ot temperance and the emancipation of wo men. She ha- founded a number of in-ti lotion- which, in her opinion, -hould be maintained by tin- -late, instead id’ be ing left to private initiative and charity.

The Duchess of Sutherland, who has devoted no end of time and money to analogous enterprises in behalf of the poorer classes, especially in the East End of London, is credited with similar views. The Duchess of Sutherland, who must not L>e confounded with the much older and quite different widow of the late duke, spent a number of weeks in New Xork and Washington last spring, studying New York methods of dealing with certain phases of poverty and suffering. Site got many new ideas, which she expressed her intention of adapting to the schools, and institutions which she maintains in the Whitechapel district of London, and likewise on her husband's vast estates in Scotland, where he owns almost the entire county bearing his name. •She is a daughter of the late Lord Rosalyn, and a stepsister of the Countess of Warwick, and may be said to owe her strawberry-leaved coronet to her mother’s .superstition about the number thirteen. It seems that one night Lady Rosalyn found that there would be thirteen at dinner. Superstitiously horrified, she caused her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lady Millicent Erskine, to be summoned in hot haste from the schoolroom, without giving her time to change hex dress Or to do her hair. Lady Millieent occupied a seat beside the Duke of Sutherland (then Marquis of Stafford), who was entirely fascinated by her good looks, and, above all, by her high spirits and complete abscence of all affectation and pose. Not long afterward he asked for her hand in marriage, and the wedding took place ;on her seventeenth birthday; that is to say, a full year before, under ordinary circumstance, she would have graduated from the schoolroom and made her debut in society. . The Duchess is popular and winsome as a public speaker, though she lacks the art of oratory which both Lady Warwick and Lady -Henry Somerset have acquired by long practice. Lady Henry, who is a daughter of the third Earl Somers, usually speaks from platforms. But the Countess of Warwick ,w;ho claims to have made heavy pecuniary sacrifices in behalf of the cause of labour and of socialism, lias often been content, especially during the recent parliamentary campaigns to speak from a Cart. READY TO PROVE HER SINCERITY. Taken to task for not practising the socialistic doctrines which she preaches she replied, from the platform, that if she retained possession of her broad acres it was entirely due to the fact that she .was debarred by the law of entail from alienating or disposing of them in any Way. She even intimated that, if the people of England would repeal the law of entail, she would be perfectly willing to live up to her ideals, and to surrender possession of all her landed property. Since then she has joined her husband, Lord Warwick, in entrusting the exploitation of their respective entailed estates to a limited stock company, thus • realising Gilbert and Sullivan’s fantastic idea of the Duke of Plazo Toro Company. Limited, in their comic opera, “The .Gondoliers.” Lord and Lady Warwick’s company bears the title of “The Warwick Estate Company, Limited,” with a share capital of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, divided into 12,000 shares of £ 10 each. The shares were well taken up; and the stockholders in the concern have not only the satisfaction of reaping substantial dividends, but likewise of feeling that they are contributing to the

maintenance of grand old Warwick Castle, and of its owners, the Earl and Countess of Warwick. While the young Duehess of Manchester, who was Miss Helena Zimmerman, has become keenly interested in the propaganda of Lady Warwick, prompted thereto by the terrible misery and destitution which has come under her notice especially ‘in Ireland, she has refrained until now from making any public profession of sympathy with socialistic ideas. It is doubtful whether her activities in the matter will ever go beyond those of the Duchess of Sutherland, or of the Dowager Duchess of Bedford; that is to say, the support and encouragement of enterprises of a philanthropic character. But England is by no means the only country in Europe where Socialists of rank and title are to be found. In France, besides Professor Ferrari, there is the Marquis de Talleyrand-Peri-gord, Due de Dino, who professes a preference for the designation of “Citizen Talleyrand,” which was used at the beginning of the nineteenth century to address his grand-unele, the great Prince Talleyrand of the Napoleonic era. Then there is the Due de Dino’s intimate friend and crony, the Marquis de Rochefort-Lucay, whose ancestors formerly owned the Chateau de Valenoay. Having had his sentence to death for participation in the Commune insurrection commuted at the last moment into penal servitude for life, this noble was amnestied, and is now, as Henri Rochefort, the art critic of the Paris “Figaro.” In Russia, Prince Victor Nakachidze, bearer of one of the most illustrious names in the history of his country, furnishes another instance of a great noble Who has sacrificed office, honours, fortune, and liberty to socialistic ideas. AN ACTIVE PRINCE. In Italy, Prince Bassina not only placed his large fortune at the disposal of the socialist cause, but likewise has converted his fine palace at Palermo into the headquarters of tuat socialist agitation which kept for a time all Sicily in a state of seething disturbance, with strikes that aimed to improve the appalling conditions of the toiling masses of that island. Grand Duke Ernest, the ruler of Hesse, and his consort, while they do not, of course, profess socialistic doctrines, invite socialist leaders, not merely to their palace, but even to their table, where they are received as honoured guests. These rulers have founded in the neighbourhood of their capital a settlement which is run on lines that are distinctly socialistic. The late Grand Duke Peter of Oldenburg was a subscriber to all the socialist publications that are printed in Switzerland, and was wont to send to the editors big canvas-lined envelopes, franked with his own personal signature, to enable the printed matter to reach him through the mails without being stopped by the postal authorities of the empire; while the royal Princess Pauline of Wurtemberg, who contracted a romantic marriage with Dr. Williin, and lives with him in Breslau, often addresses socialist meetings there, arrayed in a red blouse. These are only a few names from that long list of patricians who profess their dissatisfaction with existing social conditions, and are endeavouring to contribute to social amelioration. In some instances their methods may not commend themselves to their friends and acquaintances, especially to those of their own high caste. But since most of those mentioned above have made heavy personal sacrifices to their socialistic convictions, they are entitled to respect.