[432]Halliday, the Secretary of the Amalgamated Association of Miners, offered himself as Labour candidate for Merthyr Tydvil. A fortnight before the polling day he was indicted at Burnley for conspiracy in connection with a local miners’ strike, but nevertheless went to the poll, receiving the large total of 4912 votes (Beehive, January 31, 1874). Among the other “third candidates” were Broadhurst (Wycombe), Howell (Aylesbury), Cremer (Warwick), Lucraft (Finsbury), Potter (Peterborough), Bradlaugh (Northampton), Kane (Middlesborough), Odger (Southwark), Mottershead (Preston), and Walton (Stoke). See History of Labour Representation, by A. W. Humphrey, 1912.
[433]See House of Commons Returns, No. 237 of the 2nd, and No. 273 of the 23rd of June 1875.
[434]It is not surprising that this sweeping Parliamentary triumph evoked great enthusiasm in the Trade Union ranks. At the Trade Union Congress in October 1875, such ardent Radicals as Odger, Guile, and George Howell joined in the warmest eulogies of J. K. (afterwards Viscount) Cross, whose sympathetic attitude had surpassed their utmost hopes. “The best friends they had in Parliament,” said Howell, “with one or two exceptions, never declared for the repeal of the Criminal Law Amendment Act. He, with some friends, was under the gallery of the House of Commons when the measure was under discussion, and they could scarcely believe their ears when they heard Mr. Cross declare for the total repeal of the Act.” And Odger paid testimony to the “immense singleness of purpose” with which the Home Secretary “had attended to every proposition that had been placed before him,” and accorded them “the greatest boon ever given to the sons of toil.” An amendment deprecating such “fulsome recognition of the action of the Conservative party” received only four votes (Report of Glasgow Congress, 1875). Some minor amendments of the law relating to the registration and friendly benefits of Trade Unions were embodied in the Trade Union Act Amendment Act of 1876 (39 and 40 Vic. c. 22). See the Handybook of the Labour Laws, by George Howell, 1876, and his Labour Legislation, Labour Movements and Labour Leaders, 1902, pp. 156-72.
[435]Speech at Trades Union Congress, Glasgow, October 1875.
[436]In his letter to a Blackburn millowner, November 3, 1860. Public Letters of John Bright, collected and edited by H. J. Leech, 1885, p. 80.
[437]Letter to Colonel Maude, quoted by Professor Beesly in his address to the London Trades Council, 1869, reported in Bricklayers’ Circular, March 1870.
[438]Fortnightly Review, July 1, 1869. “The Trades Union Bill,” by Frederic Harrison.
[439]William Crawford, the trusted leader of the Durham miners, and a steadfast opponent of the Eight Hours Bill, in a well-known letter of later date (of which we have had a copy), emphatically urges the complete ostracism of non-society men. “You should at least be consistent. In numberless cases you refuse to descend and ascend with non-Unionists. The right or wrong of such action I will not now discuss; but what is the actual state of things found in many parts of the country? While you refuse to descend and ascend with these men, you walk to and from the pit, walk in and out bye with them—nay, sometimes work with them. You mingle with them at home over your glass of beer, in your chapels, and side by side you pray with them in your prayer meeting. The time has come when there must be plain speaking on this matter. It is no use playing at shuttlecock in this important portion of our social life. Either mingle with these men in the shaft, as you do in every other place, or let them be ostracised at all times and in every place. Regard them as unfit companions for yourselves and your sons, and unfit husbands for your daughters. Let them be branded, as it were, with the curse of Cain, as unfit to mingle in ordinary, honest, and respectable society. Until you make up your minds to thus completely and absolutely ostracise these goats of mankind, cease to complain as to any results that may arise from their action.” Compare A Great Labour Leader[Thomas Burt], by Aaron Watson, 1908.
[440]See his letter on the Government Annuities Bill, 1864: “Lastly, we are told of Government dictation and interference. I cannot believe men of sense will say this twice seriously.... Leave it to the political economists to complain.... Let working men remember that whenever a measure in their interest is proposed to Parliament, or suggested in the country—whether it be to limit excessive hours of labour, to protect women and children, to regulate unhealthy labour, to provide them with the means of health, cleanliness, or recreation, to save them from the exactions of unscrupulous employers—it is universally met with opposition from one quarter, that of unrestricted competition; and opposed on one ground, that of absolute freedom of private enterprise. We all know—at least, we all explain—how selfish and shallow this cry is in the mouth of unscrupulous capitalists who resist the Truck System Bill or the Ten Hours Bill. Is it not suicidal in working men to raise a cry which has ever been, and still will be, the great resource of those who strive to set obstacles to their welfare? The next time working men promote a Short Time Bill of any kind they will be told to stick to their principle of non-interference with private capital” (Beehive, March 19, 1864).
[441]From 1861 to 1877 the principal working-class organ was the Beehive, established by a group of Trade Unionists who formed a company in which over a hundred Unions are said to have taken shares. The editor and virtual proprietor during its whole life appears to have been George Potter, who was assisted by a Consulting Committee, on which appeared, at some time or another, the names of all the leading London Trade Unionists. Potter, as we have already mentioned, was a man of equivocal character and conduct, who at no time held any important position in the Trade Union world, though his London Working Men’s Association made a useful start of the movement for Trade Union representation in the House of Commons. Under his editorship the Beehive became the best Labour newspaper which has yet appeared. This was due to the persistent support of Frederic Harrison, Henry Crompton, E. S. Beesly, Lloyd Jones, and other friends of Trade Unionism who, for fifteen years, contributed innumerable articles, whilst such Trade Union leaders as Applegarth, Howell, and Shipton frequently appeared in its columns. These contributions make it of the greatest possible value to the student of Trade Union history. Unfortunately, the most complete file in any public library—that in the British Museum—begins only in 1869. Mr. John Burns possesses a unique set beginning in 1863, which he kindly placed at our disposal. In 1877 it was converted into the Industrial Review, which came to an end in 1879.