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VII. The Labour Party and the Unemployment Question, 1906–1910

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Kenneth D. Brown
Kenneth D. Brown
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Belfast
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Extract

During the eighteen months which immediately preceded the general election of 1906 many workers in Britain were adversely affected by the generally stagnant state of the economy and there was a considerable amount of agitation on behalf of the unemployed, particularly in 1905. Nevertheless, the economy began to improve in November of that year and unemployment as such did not play a very important part in the election, although the Labour candidates frequently gave it a leading place in their manifestos, putting forward a great variety of remedies. These ranged from demands for the recognition of the ‘right to work’ and the eight-hour day to pleas for the creation of a labour department with ministerial status. When Unionist candidates mentioned unemployment it was usually in the wider context of tariff reform, while Liberals who bothered to refer to the subject at all generally contented themselves with a passing reference to the need to approach the problem by reforming the land laws.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 1971 , pp. 599 - 616
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

1 See the collection of election addresses in the National Liberal Club.

2 Diary, Burns, 1 Feb. 1906, Burns Papers, B.M. Add. MSS 46324.Google Scholar

3 Diary, B. Webb, 9 Feb. 1906, British Library of Political and Economic Science (BLPES) Passfield Papers, 1, 1, xxv.Google Scholar

4 Campbell, H. Bannerman to Lord Knollys, 13 Feb. 1906, Campbell Bannerman Papers, B.M. Add. MSS 41207, fos. 50–1.Google Scholar

5 Diary, Burns, 24 May 1905. Burns Papers, B.M. Add. MSS 46323.Google Scholar

6 Ibid. 12 May 1906, Burns Papers, B.M. Add. MSS 46324.

7 The Times, 31 May 1906.

8 Lord Ripon to Buxton, S., 28 May 1906, Buxton Papers, c/o Mrs J. Clay. Uncatalogued.Google Scholar

9 Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 4th ser., CLXI, 428–9, 19 July 1906.Google Scholar

10 The Times, 6 Oct. 1906.

11 Friendly Society of Ironfounders, Annual Report (1906), p. 9. Wilkie in Amalgamated Ship wrights Society, Quarterly Report (Dec. 1906), p. 12.

12 Labour Leader, 8 Feb. 1907.

13 In a speech at Gateshead reported in the Labour Record and Review (Jan. 1907), p. 248.

11 Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 4th ser., CLXXI, 1861. 27 Mar. 1907.Google Scholar

15 Ibid. 234. 14 Mar. 1907.

16 Bill No. 273, A Bill to Provide Work through Public Authorities for Unemployed Persons, 7 Edw. 7, 9 July 1907.

17 For an analysis of the reasons behind the slowness of government business in 1907, see Brown, J., ‘Ideas concerning Social Policy and their Influence on Legislation in Britain, 1902–11’ (London Ph.D. thesis, 1964), p. 225 ff.Google Scholar

18 In a speech at Norwich: Labour Leader, 16 Aug. 1907.

19 MacDonald, J. R., The New Unemployed Bill of the Labour Party (London, 1907).Google Scholar

20 See the candidates' election addresses. Also MacDonald's speech introducing the Right to Work Bill, during which he attributed Curran's success partly to his support for the measure. Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 4th ser., CLXXVI, 1446, 9 July 1907.Google Scholar

21 S. Buxton to Lord Ripon, 19 Aug. 1907, Ripon Papers, B.M. Add. MSS 43555, fos. 266–7.

22 Board of Trade, Sixteenth Abstract of Labour Statistics (Cd. 7131). British Parliamentary Papers (1914), LXXX, 332.Google Scholar All subsequent references to unemployment figures are from this source. The figures, however, were only an approximate guide to the true state of affairs. For a discussion of their usefulness, see Beveridge, W. H., Unemployment: A Problem of Industry (London, 1909), pp. 18–21.Google Scholar

23 Labour Leader, 11 Oct. 1907.

24 Ibid. 1 Nov. 1907.

25 Ibid. 13 Dec. 1907.

26 Ibid. 7 Feb. 1908.

27 See the early Labour Party documents collected by Pease, E. R. and bound at the BLPES under the title ‘The Infancy of the Labour Party’, 11, fo. 73. 10 Feb. 1908.Google Scholar

28 Party, Labour, The Labour Party and Unemployment (London, 1908).Google Scholar

29 Standard, 12 Mar. 1908.

30 Daily Mail, 13 Mar. 1908.

31 Cox, H., ‘The Right to Work’, Quarterly Review, CCII (Jan. 1908), 203.Google Scholar

32 Masterman, C. F. G., ‘Politics in Transition’, Nineteenth Century, LXII (Jan. 1908), 16–17.Google Scholar

33 Bristol Right to Work Committee, Annual Report (1908), p. 2.

34 Standard, 12 Mar. 1908.

35 The Times, 14 Mar. 1908.

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40 Lord Ripon to S. Buxton, 6 Mar. 1908, ibid. fo. 276.

4 l The Unemployed Workmen Bill, P.R.O. CAB 37/91, 9 Mar. 1908.

42 His visit had been noted by Burns, in his diary, 14 Feb. 1908, Burns Papers, B.M. Add. MSS 46326.Google Scholar

43 BLPES. Watford Branch ILP, Correspondence File 2, fo. 33. Letter dated 13 Mar. 1908.

44 For the debate, see Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 4th ser., CLXXXVI, 10–100, 13 Mar. 1908. It should be noted, however, that on a card vote taken at the September conference of the TUC Maddison and Vivian were condemned for their stand against the Bill by a very small majority, the vote being 826,000 to 821,000. TUC, Annual Report (1908), p. 135.Google Scholar

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47 See Churchill, R., Winston S. Churchill, 11, Young Statesman, 1901–1914 (London, 1967), 240–4.Google Scholar

48 Labour Leader, 20 Mar. 1908.

49 The Times, 20 Apr. 1908.

50 The protests were not always as orderly as the march organized in Glasgow on 27 June by the local trades council. In Manchester, for example, the unemployed preferred to break windows.

51 This information is contained in a circular prepared by MacDonald and dated 21 Oct. 1905, in LRC, Letter Files, XXVI, fo. 95.

52 Labour Leader, 20 Nov. 1908.

53 Justice, 10 Oct. 1908.

54 Labour Leader, 25 Sept. 1908.

55 Masterman, L., C. F. G. Masterman (London, 1939), pp. 110–11.Google Scholar

56 National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers, Minutes of Delegate Meeting, 17 Oct. 1908.

57 Clarion, 23 Oct. 1908.

58 The Times, 18 Oct. 1908.

59 Justice, 24 Oct. 1908.

60 Ibid. 30 Mar. 1Q07. See also S. D. F., , Annual Report (1907), p. 17.Google Scholar

61 Masterman, , Masterman, p. 111.Google Scholar

62 The Unemployed, P.R.O. CAB 37/95, 17 Oct. 1908.

63 Diary, Burns, 20 Oct. 1908, Burns Papers, B.M. Add. MIS 46326.Google Scholar

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65 Diary, Burns, 21 Oct. 1908, Burns Papers, B.M. Add. MSS 46326.Google Scholar

66 The Times, 26 Oct. 1908.

67 Standard, 5 Dec. 1908.

68 Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 4th ser., cxcv, 46, 27 Oct. 1908.Google Scholar

69 Ibid. CXXVII, 1630–2, 3 Dec. 1908.

70 Ibid. CXCVI, 296, 11 Nov. 1908.

71 Ibid. 713, 13 Nov. 1908.

72 Ibid. 270, 11 Nov. 1908, and 1776, 23 Nov. 1908.

73 TUC, Parliamentary Committee Minutes, 9 Dec. 1908.

74 Justice, 20 Feb. 1909.

75 In a letter to the Oldham Branch of the SDP, quoted in Ibid. 31 Oct. 1908.

76 See, for example, his speech advocating parliamentary methods to the Manchester unemployed, Clarion, 3 Apr. 1909.

77 Nottingham's committee was dissolved. In Newcastle the trades council delegates were withdrawn. In Manchester a new committee was established under the sole control of the trades council.

78 The accounts were published in Justice, 20 Nov. 1909. Total income between October 1908 and March 1909 was only £49 2s. 4d.

79 Clarion, 12 Mar. 1909.

80 Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 5th ser., 1, 98, 17 Feb. 1909.Google Scholar

81 See their election addresses for 1910 in the National Liberal Club collection. See also Barnes' speech on the Development Bill which he called ‘the first real attempt to deal with unemployment on the basis of what might be called organic change’. Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 5th ser., x, 983–93, 6 Sept. 1909.Google Scholar

82 See their election manifestos. Roberts said that the Bill based on the minority report and introduced into the Commons in 1910 was ‘the first endeavour to thoroughly analyse the cause and effects of unemployment …’ Ibid. XVI, 819, 8 Apr. 1910.

83 O'Grady, for example, said that the Development Bill contained every proposal made by the Labour movement over the past twenty years. Ibid. XXI, 589, 10 Feb. 1911. Both MacDonald and Roberts stated in the election manifestos of January 1910 that the Right to Work Bill had largely been conceded in the government programme.

84 Mattison, A., Notebook B, 11, 14 Jan. 1911. Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.Google Scholar

85 Dowse, R. E., Left in the Centre (London, 1966), p. 17.Google Scholar Dr Pelling makes a similar suggestion in his Short History of the Labour Party (2nd ed., London, 1965), p. 22. But he puts only Hardie, Lansbury and Snowden into the category of new socialist rebels. Lansbury did not win his seat until December 1910 and thus is not mentioned in this paper. Snowden has been excluded from my list of inner ‘activists’ because he was totally opposed to any idea of co–operation with the Social Democrats. Grayson has also been left out because he was not a Labour Party member.Google Scholar

86 The Times, 27 Oct. 1911.