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The Labour Party and Education for Socialism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Rodney Barker
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No socialist since Robert Owen has had any excuse for being unaware of the relationship between educational reform and social and political change, and a perception of this relationship was a feature of nineteenth century socialism and liberalism. The attention which the educational principles and policies of socialist, labour, and radical movements in Europe have recently received has thus been well deserved. The socialists have however come off better than those organisations which have been designated as merely “labour”, and two valuable contributions to the literature dealing with Great Britain – Professor Simon's Education and the Labour Movement, 1870–1920, and Dr Reid's article on the Socialist Sunday Schools – are concerned with the programmes and beliefs of left wing socialist bodies, rather than with those of the ideologically more diffuse but politically more important Labour Party. Both these contributions may perhaps profitably be placed in a new perspective by an examination of the attitudes adopted within the Labour Party and within its industrial half-brother the Trades Union Congress, to the problems raised by the content and character, as opposed to the structure and organisation, of the education available to the working class.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , April 1969 , pp. 22 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1969

References

page 22 note 1 E.g., Hayward, J. E. S., “Educational Pressure Groups and the Indoctrination of the Radical Ideology of Solidarism, 1895–1914”, in: International Review of Social History, Vol. VIII, Part 1 (1963).Google ScholarSimon, Brian, Education and the Labour Movement, 1870–1920 (London, 1965).Google ScholarSilver, Harold, The Concept of Popular Education (London, 1965).Google ScholarWatson, D. R., “The Politics of Educational Reform in France during the Third Republic, 1900–1940”, in: Past and Present, No 34 (07 1966).CrossRefGoogle ScholarReid, F., “Socialist Sunday Schools in Great Britain, 1892– 1939”, in: International Review of Social History, Vol. XI, Part 1 (1966).Google Scholar

page 23 note 1 Plebs League, The Burning Question of Education (2nd edition, 1910), p. 22,Google Scholar quoted in: Simon, Brian, Education and the Labour Movement, 1870–1920 (London, 1965), p. 324.Google Scholar

page 23 note 2 Ministry of Reconstruction, Adult Education Committee, Final Report, pp. 222–3,Google Scholar quoted in: Simon, Brian, Education and the Labour Movement, 1870–1920 (London, 1965), p. 330.Google Scholar

page 24 note 1 There was some discussion of teaching methods within the Party, but this had no distinctive labour or socialist character. For instance the examination which the Party's Advisory Committee on Education made of the Dalton Plan and of other teaching methods between 1923 and 1925 was carried out by educationalists who were also Labour supporters or sympathisers, but it had no features which would have distinguished it from a discussion of similar topics by Conservatives or Liberals. There has always been in fact a great deal of educational policy, as of other policy, which lies completely outside the scope of political aims and party differences and which cannot usefully be understood in terms of them.

The source for information about the Labour Party's Advisory Committee on Education, and the subsequent Education Advisory Committee, is the collection of unpublished minutes, memoranda, and correspondence in the possession of the Labour Party at Transport House. I am indebted to the General Secretary of the Party for having given me permission to use these. I have designated them “Transport House Papers”, and have hereafter abbreviated this to “THP”. The reference for the above footnote is thus: THP Advisory Committee on Education memoranda: 99, 1923; 116a, 1924; 117a, 1925; 129, 1925.

The comment of the otherwise undistinguished delegate of the Willesden Labour Party to the 1945 Party Conference is illuminating though untypical: “We in the Labour Movement have, I think, in the past failed in one very important aspect of education. We have been inclined to demand the shilling against the Tory sixpence, the extra year against the Tory extra six months. But we have omitted to get down to the real question of educational methods.” Leigh-Davis, E., Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1945), p. 127.Google Scholar

page 25 note 1 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1945), p. 128.

page 25 note 2 Cf. Abel-Smith, Brian, Labour's Social Plans, Fabian Tract 369 (London, 1966), p. 18:Google Scholar “In many respects socialism is about levelling up. This is precisely what our aim should be in health, education and social security. We want to give everyone the costly education the wealthy have long enjoyed, to give everyone the amenities that go with BUPA medical care, to give everyone the standard of social security provided under the best occupational schemes.”

page 25 note 3 MacKail, J. W., Life of William Morris, vol. 2 (1912 ed.), pp. 109ff.,Google Scholar quoted in: Beer, M., History of British Socialism (3rd edition, London, 1940), pp. 250–1.Google ScholarFraser, Peter, Joseph Chamberlain (London, 1966), p. 45.Google Scholar

page 26 note 1 MacDonald, J. R., “The People in Power”, in: Coit, Stanton (editor), Ethical Democracy (London, 1900), p. 73.Google Scholar “The faith that the voice of the people is the voice of God is now about thirty years out of date”, argued MacDonald. “Those who held it assumed that an enfranchised democracy would be wide awake to every political issue … The experience of thirty years goes to show that the democracy took infinitely more interest in getting the vote than they have taken in using it.” Ibid., p. 60.

page 26 note 2 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1912), p. 104.Google Scholar

page 27 note 1 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1912), pp. 104–5.Google Scholar

page 27 note 2 Rockow, Lewis, Contemporary Political Thought in England (London, 1925), pp. 123–4.Google Scholar Of the plans of the Webbs and MacDonald, Rockow commented: “Yet fully to achieve this goal as regards the masses it is incumbent, we submit, to institute an appropriate scheme of political education. This subject, however, our authors barely touch upon. It is commonplace to note that more important than the reformation of political institutions is an improvement in the intelligence of the mass of the electors. It is less commonplace to develop a plan of civic education. Yet if democracy continues to be merely, as Shaw mentioned, a substitution for the corrupt few of the incompetent many, the situation is discouraging. If Bobus insists upon electing Bobissimus, political reforms will little avail. Collectivism, especially, depends upon an active civic enlightenment … Without such consciousness any construction of a political edifice must inevitably be as futile an effort as painting lilies … There should be, however, a book on education in the socialist state parallel with the constitution of the Webbs.”

page 27 note 3 E.g., Tawney, R. H., Secondary Education for All (The Labour Party, London, 1922).Google Scholar Cf. Chuter Ede, who was to be Labour Parliamentary Secretary at the Board of Education in the 1940–5 coalition: “a constitutional democracy has to face up to problems that in the past were relegated to a very few people in this country. If we are to have a democracy capable of shouldering this great burden, I am quite sure that it can only be done through giving to the children of all classes of the community a greater opportunity of entering into those great heritages of literature, of art and of beauty that should enrich the lives of the community.” Official reports of Parliamentary Debates are cited in the official manner. The reference for Chuter Ede's speech is thus: 229 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 365; 4th July 1929.

page 28 note 1 Herald, Glasgow, 27th 01 1926; quoted in the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations publication, Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXIII (London, 01–06 1926), p. 267.Google Scholar

page 28 note 2 255 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 868; 16th July 1931.

page 28 note 3 The Times, 6th January 1933.

page 28 note 4 Board of Education, Report of the Consultative Committee on Secondary Education (Spens Report) (London, 1939), pp. xxxvii and xxxviii.Google Scholar Cf. “TUC Memorandum to the Consultative Committee, 19th July 1934”, in: Trades Union Congress Report (1934), p. 145.Google ScholarDrake, Barbara, State Education, New Fabian Research Bureau Research Pamphlet 35 (London, 1937), pp. 21–2.Google Scholar

page 29 note 1 Robert Richards, Labour MP, 380 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1429; 16th June, 1942. Cf. Clay, Harold, Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1942), p. 141:Google Scholar “We have seen in another country how the educational system has been used for the destruction of all that we value in this Movement, and we have got to use our educational system not less effectively and not less resolutely.”

page 29 note 2 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1946), pp. 192–5.Google Scholar

page 30 note 1 Hughes, Emrys, Keir Hardie (London, 1956), pp. 94–9.Google Scholar Asked in January 1900 by the New York Times, “What is the chief danger, social or political, which confronts the new century?” Hardie replied, “Militarism!”, ibid., p. 109. R. C. K. Ensor, England, 1870–1914 (Oxford, 1936), p. 267.

page 30 note 2 81 HC Deb., 4 s., c. 844; 30th March 1900. Cf. also 119 HC Deb., 4 s., c. 1303–4, 1310–11; 19th March 1903. The concern for the health of the nation was associated with a concern for its imperial greatness and Gilbert has observed that “Many imperialists sought in addition to use improvement of the English physique as an argument for the establishment of military training.” Gilbert, Bentley, The Evolution of National Insurance in Great Britain (London, 1966), p. 94.Google Scholar The Earl of Ronaldshay had attempted, against the opposition of Barnes, to amend the Education (Scotland) Bill of 1908, so as to institute military drill in the schools: 196 HC Deb., 4 s., c. 194–206; 10th November 1908.

page 30 note 3 152 HC Deb., 4 s., c. 194; 19th February 1906. Cf. also 163 HC Deb., 4 s., c. 425–7; 25th October 1906.

page 30 note 4 Snowden: 163 HC Deb., 4 s., c. 704–5; 29th October 1906. Summerbell: 173 HC Deb., 4 s., c. 702; 30th April 1907.

page 31 note 1 Independent Labour Party Annual Conference Report (London, 1906), p. 42.

page 31 note 2 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1907), p. 62.Google Scholar

page 31 note 3 Workers' Educational Association, Report of National Conference on Educational Reconstruction (London, 1917), pp. 56–74.Google Scholar

page 31 note 4 Ibid., p. 35.

page 32 note 1 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (January-February 1918), p. 135.

page 32 note 2 105 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 2182; 8th May 1918.

page 32 note 3 One Labour MP also acted as teller, making 14 in all.

page 32 note 4 105 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 2182–2220; 8th May 1918.

page 32 note 5 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (June 1918), p. 22.

page 32 note 6 108 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 749–58; 15th July 1918.

page 32 note 7 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1919), pp. 164–5.

page 32 note 8 Labour Party, Local Education Schemes; Memo submitted to the Board of Education by the Executive Committee of the Labour Party (London, 07 1921), p. 3.Google Scholar

page 32 note 9 Trades Union Congress Report (1922), p. 413.

page 33 note 1 Report of Commission on Education appointed by Bradford Independent Labour Party, Vol. 3 (Bradford, 1929), p. 22.Google Scholar

page 33 note 2 Independent Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1930), p. 108.

page 33 note 3 Labour Party, What Labour Has Done for London (London, 1936), p. 7.Google Scholar

page 33 note 4 Morrison, H., An Autobiography (London, 1960), pp. 148–9.Google Scholar

page 33 note 5 Labour Party, What Labour Has Done for London (1936), p. 7.Google Scholar

page 33 note 6 Conservative Party, Politics in Review (London), Vol. 3, No 2 (04–06 1936), pp. 126–7; and Vol. 3, No 3 (06–09, 1936), pp. 73–4.Google Scholar

page 34 note 1 380 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1469; 6th June 1942.

page 34 note 2 Daily Express, 04 10th and 3rd 1945, quoted in the Conservative Central Office publication, Notes on Current Politics, VI (London, 1945), pp. 13–4.Google Scholar

page 34 note 3 694 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 777–874; 1st May 1964.

page 35 note 1 E.g., Henderson, Arthur, The Aims of Labour (London, 1918)Google Scholar (the pamphlet was written the previous year), p. 19: “There never was a bigger opportunity for democracy to achieve its main aims than the one which now offers.”

page 35 note 2 Snowden, Philip, Labour and the New World (London, 1921), p. 224.Google Scholar Cf. Cook, A. J., Trades Union Congress Report (1922), p. 303:Google Scholar “you can waste thousands of pounds in the financing of an election, but you must educate your people before the election.” The TUC General Council subcommittee on education observed, in its Report and Recommendations to the 1922 Congress: “The development of the working-class movement has not yet arrived at a stage when the majority of the organised workers and their wives can be relied upon to vote Labour from conviction.” Trades Union Congress Report (1922), p. 189.Google Scholar

page 36 note 1 Cramp signed a manifesto of the National Council of Labour Colleges in 1925, together with Smillie, Cook, Purcell, Ellen Wilkinson, and others. Daily Herald, 26th 02 1925, quoted in Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXI (London, 01–06 1925), p. 452.Google Scholar

page 37 note 1 Trades Union Congress Report (1918), p. 305.

page 37 note 2 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1918) (06), p. 72.Google Scholar

page 37 note 3 Trades Union Congress Report (1918), p. 305.

page 37 note 4 S. P. Viant of the Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners in: Trades Union Congress Report (1919), p. 350.

page 37 note 5 The TUC of 1918 passed a motion calling for “revision of the curriculum now obtaining in the elementary and secondary schools, especially in the teaching of history and allied subjects”. The Labour Party Conference of 1923 passed a resolution calling for the elimination of “the false historical instruction and military training by which Capitalism, Militarism, and Imperialism seek to poison the mind and injure the body of childhood”. But on both occasions there was an excess of acquiescence over enthusiasm and both resolutions were carried without debate. Trades Union Congress Report (1918), p. 303. Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1923), p. 237.

page 38 note 1 The Times, 21st May 1923 and 5th January 1924. Labour Press Service, 10th April 1924.

page 38 note 2 The Times, 31st December 1924. The Times, 30th December 1925.

page 38 note 3 Pelling, Henry, A Short History of the Labour Party (London, 1961), pp. 53–4.Google Scholar

page 38 note 4 The Times, 30th December 1925.

page 38 note 5 Daily Herald, 31st 12 1926, quoted in: Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXV (London, 01–06 1927), pp. 227–8.Google Scholar The Times, 30th and 31st December 1926. Asher Tropp, The School Teachers (London, 1957), p. 216, footnote 17.Google Scholar

page 39 note 1 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1925), p. 102.Google Scholar 182 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 2350; 8th April 1925.

page 39 note 2 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1925), p. 214.Google Scholar

page 39 note 3 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1925), p. 215.Google Scholar

page 39 note 4 Labour Party Annual Conference Agenda (1925), pp. 12 & 15.Google Scholar

page 40 note 1 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1925), p. 293.Google Scholar

page 40 note 2 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1926), pp. 265–6.Google Scholar

page 40 note 3 Labour Party Annual Conference Agenda (1926). The Teachers' Labour League seems to have had a number of Manchester members amongst its leading left wingers, but I have been unable to discover the extent, if any, of TLL influence over the Manchester and Liverpool resolution. It echoes the speech which Redgrove himself made the previous year at the League's own conference, and is the first appearance at a party conference of such an extreme demand.

page 41 note 1 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1926), p. 264.Google Scholar

page 41 note 2 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1926), pp. 264–5.Google Scholar

page 41 note 3 Ibid., p. 265.

page 41 note 4 Beatrice Webb, Diaries, 1924–32, edited by Margaret Cole (London, 1956), pp. 120–1.Google Scholar

page 41 note 5 Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXIV (07–12 1926), p. 351; Vol. LXV (01–06 1927), pp. 148–9;Google Scholar Vol. LXVI (July-December 1927), pp. 65–6 & 480. The former Labour education Ministers, Morgan Jones and C. P. Trevelyan, did their best to deflate the accusations of Government spokesmen in this matter: 202 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1944–5; 24th February 1927. 204 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 702–4 & 708–9; 24th March 1927.

page 41 note 6 Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXV (01–06 1927), p. 408.Google Scholar A London Conservative Teachers' Association was formed, and included a similar policy amongst its objects: Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXV (01–06 1927), p. 543.Google Scholar

page 42 note 1 The Times, 7th January 1927, quoted in: Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXV (01–06 1927), p. 225.Google Scholar But the Conservative position on school curricula was not always so different from the attitude which they criticised. In January 1927 Eustace Percy, as President of the Board of Education, told a deputation from the Royal Society of St. George that “It ought to be perfectly clearly laid down by the Board of Education, by local authorities, by the teaching profession, by everybody who is connected with education, that patriotism is the very foundation of our teaching in the school.” Daily Telegraph, 28th January 1927, quoted in: Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXV (01–06 1927), p. 371.Google Scholar

page 42 note 2 215 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1777–8; 3rd April 1928. 216 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1054–5; 26th April 1928. Percy treated the suggestion with some ridicule, pointing out that he himself had written in the WEA's magazine, “The Highway”, at which particular offence had been taken by the backbencher.

page 42 note 3 199 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1937–8; 18th November 1926. 202 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1086–7 & 1257–68; 17th February 1927. 204 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 659–69, 674–5, & 702–5; 24th March 1927. 217 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1138–9; 16th May 1928. The Labour Party's Advisory Committee on Education urged the National Executive Committee to “give the greatest possible publicity” to the cancellation of the head's certificate. THP Advisory Committee on Education minutes, 4th April 1927.

page 43 note 1 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1927), pp. 173–6.Google ScholarFelling, Henry, A Short History of the Labour Party (London, 1961), p. 54.Google Scholar Daily Herald, 9th March 1927, quoted in: Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXV (01–06 1927), p. 527.Google Scholar

page 43 note 2 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1927), pp. 52–3.Google Scholar THP Advisory Committee on Education minutes, 14th March 1927.

page 43 note 3 Beatrice Webb, Diaries, 1912–24, edited by Margaret Cole (London, 1956), pp. 116–7.Google ScholarHamilton, M. A., Arthur Henderson (London, 1938), pp. 225–6.Google Scholar THP Advisory Committee on Education minutes. Tawney himself was of course a notable exception to the non-ideological nature of many committee members' interest in education in so far as he related his views and proposals on a whole range of topics to his firmly held social and political ethics.

page 44 note 1 THP Advisory Committee on Education memorandum 165a, March 1927.

page 44 note 2 THP Advisory Committee on Education minutes, 4th April 1927.

page 44 note 3 THP Advisory Committee on Education memorandum 165b, May 1927.

page 44 note 4 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1927), pp. 215–6.

page 44 note 5 Trades Union Congress Report (1927), pp. 333–5.

page 44 note 6 E.g., Starr, Mark, Lies and Hate in Education (London, 1929).Google ScholarMillar, J. P. M. and Woodburn, Arthur, Bias in the Schools (London, 1936).Google Scholar

page 45 note 1 Report of the Commission on Education appointed by the Bradford ILP., Vol. 3 (1929), pp. 21–2.Google Scholar

page 45 note 2 By the Labour MP for Mansfield, C. Brown: 270 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1220–1; 16th November 1932.

page 45 note 3 Beatrice Webb referred to a “dour determination never again to undertake the government of the country as the caretaker of the existing order of society”. Diaries 1924–32, ed. Margaret Cole (London, 1956), p. 292.Google Scholar

page 45 note 4 Councillor Dan Frankel in: Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1932), p. 251.

page 45 note 5 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1934), p. 216.Google Scholar

page 45 note 6 Dr Lytton-Barnard, B., who quoted from “Lies and Hate in Education”, in: Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1934), p. 218.Google Scholar

page 45 note 7 Manchester Guardian, 17th August 1935, Leader. I am indebted to Lady Simon of Wythenshawe, and to Professor Brian Simon, through whom she made available to me a list of Tawney's contributions, both signed and anonymous, to the Manchester Guardian.

page 46 note 1 Labour Party, Labour and Education (London, 12 1934), p. 1.Google Scholar

page 46 note 2 E.g., Neil Maclean: 329 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1397–8; 25th November 1937. T. M. Sexton: 330 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 602; 9th December 1937. John Mack: 391 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1985–8; 30th July 1943. Woodburn, Arthur, Vice President of the National Council of Labour Colleges and Labour MP, Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1942), p. 143.Google ScholarIn 1949 the matter was briefly reviewed by Peter Ibbotson in: Modern Education (the journal of the National Association of Labour Teachers), Vol. 3, No 2 (09 1949), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

page 46 note 3 THP, LG 58 (February, 1938), p. 2. THP, Education Advisory Committee minutes, 7th February 1938, minutes 1; and 26th May 1938.

page 46 note 4 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1946), pp. 192–4.Google Scholar

page 46 note 5 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1946), pp. 194–5.Google Scholar

page 46 note 6 Greene, Ben: Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1932), p. 252.Google Scholar

page 46 note 7 308 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 1232; 3rd February 1936.

page 47 note 1 TUC, Education and Democracy (London, 1937), p. 16.Google Scholar

page 47 note 2 Horace King: 694 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 801–7, 1st May 1964.

page 47 note 3 441 HC Deb., 5 s., c. 662; 31st July 1947.

page 47 note 4 G. R. Mitchison was a barrister and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist League at its formation in 1932. The First Workers' Government had an introduction by Cripps.

page 47 note 5 Mitchison, G. R., The First Workers' Government (London, 1934), p. 405.Google Scholar

page 48 note 1 Craik, W. W., The Central Labour College (London, 1964), p. 63.Google Scholar

page 48 note 2 H., J. F. & Horrabin, W. H., What Does Education mean to the Workers? (Plebs League, London, 3rd edn, 1917), p. 7.Google Scholar

page 48 note 3 H., J. F. & Horrabin, W. H., What Does Education mean to the Workers? (Plebs League, London, 3rd edn, 1917), p. 3.Google Scholar

page 48 note 4 Ibid,. p. 7.

page 48 note 5 Titterington, M. F. in: Trades Union Congress Report (1923), pp. 259–60.Google Scholar

page 48 note 6 Reid, F., Socialist Sunday Schools in Britain, 1892–1939, in: International Review of Social History, Vol. XI, Part 1 (1966), pp. 40–41.Google Scholar

The only other similar venture was the Burston Strike school, founded in 1914, although the Kibbo Kift Kindred and the Woodcraft Folk carried out the same type of purpose in a less formally educational manner. For Strike Schools, see the Daily Mail, 25th February 1927, quoted in: Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXV (January-June 1927), p. 526; and Independent Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1916), p. 93. For KKK and Woodcraft Folk, see Armytage, W. H. G., 400 years of English Education (London, 1964), pp. 210–11.Google Scholar In October 1927 A. N. Branson, a member of the Executive of the ILP Guild of Youth, attacked the Scout movement, and suggested that a more class orientated movement might be formed. See the Sunday Worker, 23rd October 1927, quoted in: Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXVI (July-December 1927), p. 480.

page 49 note 1 See Manifesto in Daily Herald, 26th February 1925, quoted in: Gleanings and Memoranda, Vol. LXI (01–06 1925), p. 452.Google Scholar

page 49 note 2 National Council of Labour Colleges, Education for Emancipation (London, 1937), p. 7.Google Scholar

page 49 note 3 Nettl, J. P., “The German Social Democratic Party 1890–1914 as a Political Model”, in: Past and Present, No 30 (04 1965), p. 67.Google Scholar

page 49 note 4 Trades Union Congress Report (1913), p. 335. Several of the early Ruskin students seem to have been sympathetic to syndicalism, and Harrison, J. F. C. (Learning and Living, 1760–1960 (London, 1961), p. 294)Google Scholar says that a group of the Industrial Workers of the World was formed at the College. But Craik (The Central Labour College (London, 1964), pp. 83–4)Google Scholar denies this.

page 49 note 5 Trades Union Congress Report (1913), pp. 332–5.Google Scholar

page 50 note 1 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1921), p. 212, and (1926), p. 265.

page 50 note 2 Trades Union Congress Report (1922), p. 287. Cf. Central Labour College statement, in: Trades Union Congress Report (1915), pp. 268–270.

page 50 note 3 Trades Union Congress Report (1922), p. 288.

page 51 note 1 Trades Union Congress Report (1924), pp. 423 and 427.Google Scholar

page 51 note 2 Trades Union Congress (1923), p. 260.Google Scholar

page 51 note 3 Labour Party Annual Conference Report (1924), pp. 167 and 169.Google Scholar

page 51 note 4 Labour Party Annual Conference Agenda (1924), p. 46.Google Scholar

page 51 note 5 Walker, J. in: Trades Union Congress Report (1924), p. 423.Google Scholar

page 51 note 6 What the National Council of Labour Colleges formally described as its purpose, and the role it actually performed, were of course two very different things. It was the Workers' Educational Association not the National Council which provided adult education approaching a university standard, and although the Central Labour College provided full-time residential courses for adults, the work of the Council also spread through a whole range of studies down to grammar and composition. Moreover, much of the work of the National Council was not in rivalry to the work of the public system, but was supplementary to it.

page 52 note 1 E.g., cartoon by Horrabin in National Council of Labour Colleges, Education for Emancipation (1926), p. 5. A top hated gentleman is carrying, to the dismay of his colleagues, a bag marked: “Government Education Grants”. ”The Gang; – But we thought the idea was an attack on the Unions. The Far-sighted Gent: – Sh-h-h!! This is part of the game!”

page 52 note 2 Thomson, G. W., for the General Council, in: Trades Union Congress Report (1943), p. 180.Google Scholar