From Workhouse to Westminster Part 24

Mr. John Burns went down to Woolwich to pay his tribute in person. With the Labour candidate he addressed a ma.s.s meeting of over five thousand electors in the Drill Hall, while crowds surged outside the doors, delaying the tram traffic in the streets. Mr. Burns fell into glowing periods in his eulogy of his old colleague:--

Woolwich has in Mr. Crooks a man who not only carries a banner which typifies a cause, but honours the army for which he works. By his tolerance and sweet-tempered geniality, he has united the Progressive forces of Woolwich as they have never been united before. In securing what is possible to-day, Mr. Crooks never forgets his ideal, but with a brotherly love and Christian charity pursues the line of least resistance in a way which Labour has not always shown.

Before sitting down, Mr. Burns took occasion to tell his five thousand hearers that among other reasons why he was there to commend their candidate was because Crooks was "wise on Poor Law."

As the contest developed, Crooks found that much the same kind of thing was being said against him as he had heard during his mayoralty in Poplar. He told one of his public meetings:--

"Lovely ladies are already going about with lovely stories. As they canva.s.s for my opponent they tell the elector or his wife that the rates will go up if a Labour candidate is elected. They say that because he is a poor man he will have to be paid a salary of 500 a year out of the rates. You tell these alluring ladies that Will Crooks has been in public life for fourteen years, and has never had a penny from the rates all the time. Tell them further that if he remains in public life another fifty years, he will still never have a penny from the rates."

Evidently those good ladies had not read his election address. There he stated:--

"I have no desire to enter Parliament unless it be for the opportunities it may afford me of continuing and extending my life's work. If I can further the well-being of my country by a.s.sisting in the developing of a nation of self-respecting men and women, whose children shall be educated and physically and mentally fitted to face their responsibilities and duties, I shall be content.

"I therefore ask those of you who believe that the greatness of our Empire rests on the happiness and prosperity of its people to consider carefully the importance of the present election.

"I am of opinion that a strong Labour Party in the House of Commons, comprised of men who know the sufferings and share the aspirations of all grades of workmen, is certain to exercise greater influence for good than the academic student."

As the day of the poll (March 11th) drew near, confident hopes of victory began to be entertained by many outside the Labour Party. The most telling election cry used by his supporters was innocently supplied by the opposition candidate, Mr. Drage, a gentleman who at one time sat with Crooks on the Asylums Board. At one of his public meetings early in the campaign, Mr. Drage attempted to justify certain low wages paid in the Woolwich a.r.s.enal by remarking that half a loaf was better than no bread.

The Labour Party seized upon the words at once. "No half-loaf policy for us; we want the whole loaf," was their immediate retort.

From that moment the loaf became the feature of the fight. As Free Trade and Protection were also to the front, the loaf had a double significance. Crooks's supporters carried about the streets, on the end of poles, loaves and half-loaves to represent the rival policies. "F. C.

G.," in one of his _Westminster Gazette_ cartoons, represented Crooks standing firm and solid on the whole loaf, while his opponent balanced himself with some temerity on a tottering half-loaf.

Polling day dawned hopefully. Suns.h.i.+ne illumined the streets, while the Labour candidate's carriages filled them. For once a Labour man out-cla.s.sed a Conservative in the number and style of his conveyances.

Friends of Crooks sent four-in-hands, motor cars, two-horse carriages, traps, drags, vans, coal-carts, and donkey shays. The bakers of the district had made thousands of miniature loaves about the size of walnuts, which were in evidence everywhere. With stalks through them, these loaves were sold in the streets and shops for a penny. Men wore them in their b.u.t.tonholes, boys in their caps, and women on their dresses as a symbol of the Labour man's policy of the whole loaf.

Victory had been hoped for, but victory such as that achieved was beyond the wildest dreams. A Conservative majority of 2805 was turned by Crooks into a Labour majority of 3229--"the greatest by-election victory of modern times," as the _Speaker_ described it. The actual poll was:--

Crooks (Labour) 8687 Drage (Conservative) 5458 ---- Majority 3229

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILL CROOKS ADDRESSING AN OPEN-AIR MEETING IN BERESFORD SQUARE DURING THE WOOLWICH BYE-ELECTION IN 1903.]

To the little company of supporters of both parties a.s.sembled in the counting room of the Town Hall, Crooks turned after the declaration of the result, and proposed the usual vote of thanks to the returning officer. He added:--

"May I say, now that I am elected Member for Woolwich, that it will be my aim and desire to serve all sections of the people of Woolwich, including, of course, those who voted for Mr. Drage, as well as those who voted for me. So far as Mr. Drage and myself are concerned, we shall still retain the same friends.h.i.+p we have had for years."

In seconding the vote, Mr. Drage congratulated Mr. Crooks on the great victory he had won, and a.s.sured him that their friends.h.i.+p had not been shaken by the campaign.

A roar from the streets told that the news had reached the waiting crowds. The new Member with his wife and a few friends pa.s.sed out of the Town Hall into the midst of the mult.i.tude. It was only by the aid of the police, who opened a pa.s.sage through the serried ranks, that Crooks was able to reach the market square by the a.r.s.enal gates, where it had been arranged he should speak.

It was then nigh on midnight, but when he mounted a cart he looked out on a sea of faces in the glare of improvised torches and the street lamps such as had never been witnessed at that hour in Woolwich before.

Amid the exuberant joy of this mult.i.tude, it was in vain he tried to speak. One sentence only, sharp and clear, broke in between the cheering:--

"To-night Woolwich has sent a message of love and hope to Labour all over the country."

Not another word could be heard. Finally he gave up the attempt to speak. The crowd was content to roll out its cheers. These increased in volume when someone from the dark ma.s.s pa.s.sed up a large bouquet of flowers to Mrs. Crooks.

So the curtain fell on a great fight. Mrs. Crooks, with her presentation bouquet, the happiest woman in England. The crowd of workers, who felt that a workers' battle had been won and a new hope arisen. And the new Member of Parliament, very tired, cheery, undisturbed, desirous only that the efforts of those who had a.s.sisted should be gratefully acknowledged and no undue credit given to the vigorous and magnetic personality who had focussed all the enthusiasm and driven it forward into an unprecedented victory.

CHAPTER XXIII

ADVENT OF THE POLITICAL LABOUR PARTY

Congratulations--A Letter from Bishop Talbot--Bar-parlour Opinion--The Press on the Victory--The Birth of a Party--An Opponent of the South African War.

Before Crooks went down to the House of Commons on the following day, he had a busy morning opening telegrams to the number of two or three hundred.

Mr. John Burns, Mr. Keir Hardie, Mr. David Shackleton, wired their congratulations from the House of Commons. Other messages came from trade unions and groups of working-men and working-women in various parts of the country. Among them were telegrams from dockers at Middlesbrough, coopers at Birmingham, postmen in London, engineers at Newcastle, and cycle-makers at Coventry.

These well-wishes from the ranks of Labour poured in simultaneously with congratulations from Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Hon. Maud Stanley, Lord Tweedmouth, Mr. Beerbohm Tree, and many ministers of religion.

The late Sir Wilfrid Lawson, as was his wont dropped into verse. He wired from Carlisle:--

Hurrah! The future brighter looks; We worry on by hooks and Crooks.

Oh, what a heavy, heavy blow Last night you struck on Jingo Joe!

From the Bishop's House, Kennington, S.E., Dr. Talbot wrote:--

I wish, as one to whom, as its Bishop, the affairs of Woolwich are of great interest, to offer you my sincere good wishes for your Parliamentary course.

I am aware that by so writing at this moment I may risk misunderstanding and seem to "wors.h.i.+p the rising sun," and that you may not care for words when there were not deeds in support.

But I venture to risk this: and to trust you to take as genuine what is genuinely said. I think you are the man to do this.

I cannot but feel and I desire to express great satisfaction that the needs and interests of Labour should have their representative in one who has given such proof of desire to work and suffer for the welfare of his fellow-men as you have done.

All that I have heard of you commands my admiration and respect. It will be a great pleasure to find there are occasions when we may co-operate for the public welfare in Woolwich.

Had the Bishop of Bloemfontein--Chandler--been in England, I might have asked him for an introduction to you; as it is, may our common friends.h.i.+p for him serve the purpose.

You will come into Parliament with great power from your character and experience, and as the representative by such a majority of such a place. May you seek, and may G.o.d Almighty give you, the wisdom and strength to use rightly this great position.

To turn from the Bishop to the bar-parlour will help us to preserve the balance of things human. While Dr. Talbot was sending his blessing from the Bishop's House, there came a chorus of good-wishes from nearly every public-house in Woolwich. This was all the more remarkable because Crooks had made the const.i.tuency hold its sides with laughter over the innumerable stories he told during the campaign against beer-drinkers.

Those who laughed the loudest were the drinkers themselves, admitting while so doing they had never heard a teetotaler put the case against them so well before.