Only legislation of a socialistic nature can benefit the working class. And that kind of legislation the Liberals will not touch.
It is true there are some individual members amongst the Radicals who are prepared to go a good way with the Socialists. But what can they do? In the House they must obey the Party Whip, and the Party Whip never cracks for socialistic measures.
I wonder how many Labour seats have been lost through Home Rule. Time after time good Labour candidates have been defeated because Liberal working men feared to lose a Home Rule vote in the House.
And what has Labour got from the Home Rule Liberals it has elected?
And where is Home Rule to-day?
Let me give you a typical case. A Liberal Unionist lost his seat. He at once became a Home Ruler, and was adopted as Liberal candidate to stand against a Labour candidate and against a Tory. The Labour candidate was a Home Ruler, and had been a Home Ruler when the Liberal candidate was a Unionist.
But the Liberal working men would not vote for the Labour man. Why? Because they were afraid he would not get in. If he did not get in the Tory would get in, and the Home Rule vote would be one less in the House.
They voted for the Liberal, and he was returned. That is ten years ago. What good has that M.P. done for Home Rule, and what has he done for Labour?
The Labour man could have done no more for Home Rule, but he would have worked hard for Labour, and no Party Whip would have checked him.
Well, during those ten years it is not too much to say that fifty Labour candidates have been sacrificed in the same way to Home Rule.