From Crow-Scaring To Westminster; An Autobiography Part 9

There's no deception in its faith, It stands on hallowed ground.

Ground sanctified by martyr's blood Who o'er its surface trod, When battling for their liberty Their Conscience and their G.o.d.

Oh, come with me, I pray thee, wife, And worship at its shrine, Give thy adhesion to its Cause, And make its interest thine, Its songs are of the right to live For every one who toils, With their freedom of accession To live upon the soil.

My heart grew restive at its words, My spirit caught the fire, I joined the utmost of my voice To that most ardent choir, And sang as in my youthful days, Let tyrants prostrate fall, Bring forth the honest man of toil, And crown him, crown him, crown him.

Crown him best of all.

Come, wife, that fight will soon be o'er The victory's nearly won: The better land is just ahead, I see its rising sun.

We're nearing now its happy sh.o.r.e, Where streams of plenty run, And there we'll never want again, There'll be no sorrow there, In that just land where all is love, There'll be no sorrow there.

THE UNION LIGHT.

(_Tune_: "Stand up for Jesus.")

Stand up, the men of Labour, Who toil upon the land, For better homes and wages Make one united stand.

Your captains, they will lead you, If you will follow on, Now is the time, O comrades, Haste age to come along.

STRONG HUMAN LOVE (_Tune_: "Lead, Kindly Light.")

Strong, human love! within whose steadfast Will Is always peace.

O stay with me, storm-tossed on waves of ill; Let pa.s.sions cease.

Come thou in power within my heart to reign.

For I am weak and struggle has begun.

This book, which contains some of the finest phrases with twenty-six songs, was used for years at our meetings as our official hymn-book, but after a time it was revised and in my judgment some of the best hymns were left out. Still, I must not complain, as young folks are anxious to keep up to date.

The committee at their last meeting took the step of forming Conciliation and Arbitration Councils, and they decided to move the following resolution at the General Council Meeting:--

That the Executive be authorized to endeavour to form Conciliation and Arbitration Boards for the area in which the Union works. On such Boards the employers and labourers be equally represented and an outside Chairman be appointed, and they shall have power to consider all questions in this area of wages and conditions of work and for the immediate future. Pending the carrying out of this, the Executive Committee be instructed to request the Farmers'

Federation to agree to a rise of 1s. per week from March next.

So far as this resolution was concerned the Farmers' Federation refused to meet us. It was, however, evident that the men were getting restless, and I could see that unless the Farmers' Federation were prepared to meet us there would be a grave danger of a serious outbreak in the near future. We closed the year 1908, however, with a balance of 997 18s.

6d.

In September 1908 Mr. Rippingall of Langham died and a vacancy was caused in the Walsingham County Council Division. At the request of the members living in this district and with the permission of the Executive I was put forward as a Labour candidate. This time I decided I would run purely as an independent Labour candidate, and that I would have nothing more to do with either political party. I had all my bills printed in the Union colour, green. I also used the motto I selected for the Union: "Be just and fear not." I fought the election single-handed. I acted as my own agent and arranged my own meetings, the only a.s.sistants I had being my colleague Mr. Thomas Thacker and Mr. Robert Green. My a.s.sistant did the clerical work. We addressed all the envelopes, folded all the addresses ourselves and posted them. We had meetings in every parish in the district. The labourers were very enthusiastic. I soon found the leading Liberals were most anxious to find some excuse to vote against Labour in spite of what I had done for the party in North Norfolk. The excuse they found was no party politics in County Council elections.

Yet, strange to say, my opponent Mr. Walker and his agent were strong Tories. No one thought I stood a shadow of a chance as a direct Labour candidate. The contest lasted three weeks and it was a most strenuous fight. My colleague Mr. Thacker and myself worked night and day. We threw all our strength into the contest, holding meetings and addressing envelopes during the day. As the election drew near we realized it would be a close contest. My opponents were confident that they were winning.

On the day of the election the farmers and tradesmen rallied up to the support of my opponent. Every available conveyance was brought up to his support and all my supporters had to walk. Many had to walk three and four miles to vote after they had done their day's work, but did it cheerfully, many going to vote before going home to tea. At the close of the poll everyone realized it was a very close fight. Even the Tories were not so sure that they had won. I appointed my colleague and Mr. H.

J. Gidney, who rendered valuable help during the election, as my counting agents. The counting of the votes was done in the Returning Officer's house, and then for the first time I found out that his son was my opponent's agent and had been acting as Deputy Returning Officer.

To this arrangement I raised the strongest protest. The counting was most exciting; we kept side by side all the time, and at the close the Returning Officer declared we had tied. We were not satisfied and demanded a recount, and, further, the number of votes did not correspond with counterfoils. The result of the recount left us as before. Still, there were four papers short. At this stage the keen eye of my colleague detected four papers under the looking-gla.s.s, and these four votes were mine. None knew how the ballot papers got under the gla.s.s, but they were there and were mine, and I was declared elected. My opponents were indignant, and protested that when the general election for the Council came their candidate would fight again. But this the poor man was not allowed to do, for within three months after this contest he was taken seriously ill and died.

At the yearly meeting in March 1909, when the election of the committees took place, I was put on to the Small Holdings Committee, Public Health Committee and Old Age Pensions Committee. These committees I felt more deeply interested in. The first was a movement which the Union had made a part of its object.

On squaring up the accounts of the election I found that it had cost 3 19s., which was caused by hire of rooms, printing and postages.

I was the first direct Labour representative elected on to the County Council, and, being free from any political ties, I felt myself free to take any action I thought was best in the interest of the cla.s.s I directly represented. I devoted most of my energies to the working of the Small Holdings Act. I soon found, however, we were up against a big problem and that land was not so easy to get as I had thought it was before I was a member of the committee. The Act was surrounded with so much red tape and the landlords' interests were safeguarded at every turn, which enabled them to put obstacles in the way and make it most difficult to obtain land that we could let to the men at reasonable rents, and our progress was very slow. Hundreds of applications for land were sent in, varying from five acres to fifty, especially after my election, as they apparently thought I, being a Labour member, would carry everything before me. Apparently they thought that we had nothing to do but to go and take the land and buy it in the same way as we go and buy any other article. Hence hundreds of men got tired of waiting.

But we made good progress, and by October 1909 we had obtained over a thousand acres of land and put over 115 men on to the land.

At the general election of the Council in 1910 I moved from the Walsingham District to the Free Bridge Lynn Division, according to the promise I had made previous to my going to Walsingham at the bye-election. This time I was fighting a sitting member and one of the largest farmers in Norfolk. I again stood as a direct Labour candidate.

This time I had less help than before, as my colleague was fighting the Litcham Division for a seat on the Council and Mr. Robert Green was fighting the Walsingham Division which I had left. The only helper as a speaker was my old friend Mr. Thomas Higdon, the hero of the Burston School Strike. The contest was a sharp one. My opponent had the help of several of the members of the Council, both Liberal and Tory, who were being returned unopposed. This contest nearly knocked my a.s.sistant Miss Pike and myself up, but in spite of the number of speakers brought into the division, I won the election by a majority of eighty. I had, however, in this contest a good deal of local help from amongst my own people, as we were better organized in this division, notably Mr.

Matthew Berry of East Winch and Mr. James Coe of Castleacre.

At the first meeting of the new Council I was put on to the following committees: Public Health, Mental Hospital, Small Holdings, Old Age Pensions, Western Highways. From this moment I was treated with the greatest amount of respect by every member of the Council and listened to with interest. I set myself to work diplomatically to accomplish the things for which I was sent there, for I found on going into the Mental Hospital, although the problem of dealing with those mentally affected is a pathetic one, still to me it was pleasant work, as it touched my humanity, and I found Dr. Thompson, the Medical Superintendent, most human and kind, and beloved by all brought into contact with him. I found also that whilst demanding strict discipline, as he must do, still to his staff he was most fair and always willing to listen to a grievance. I have had to discuss matters with him at different times as the Trade Unions' representative on the committee, and I am pleased to say we have been able to make many improvements in the working conditions of the staff since I have been on the committee. About this time they were engaged in erecting a nurses' home. This completed, we then pushed through another scheme, new stores and hall which is used for b.a.l.l.s and entertainment for the inmates and staff. I am pleased to say that every comfort for these poor unfortunate creatures is studied.

I have had to put up one fight since I have been on the committee in connection with the dietary. I fought most strenuously the question of margarine, but got defeated.

The Small Holdings movement made rapid progress. I soon found this added considerably to my labours. It meant nearly two days per week, and with my District Council and Board of Guardians work I was very heavily harnessed with local government work. It was, however, educational and interesting. About this time I was elected Chairman of the Erpingham Rural District Council Sanitary Committee, but I used to so arrange my Union work that I never neglected one of their meetings.

CHAPTER XI

UNREST

On February 20, 1909, the third General Council Meeting of the Union was held in St. James's Hall, King's Lynn, and by the resolutions that were sent in from the various branches I was satisfied that the men were getting restless and that without great care trouble was facing us in the near future, and that it was imperative that we should be taking some steps to secure some improvement in the working condition of our members. The committee, however, could not see that there was any danger; but I could see it, and I did persuade the Executive to allow me to write to the Farmers' Federation and invite them to meet us and discuss the question of some readjustment in wages. This I did, but it was again refused. On receipt of this refusal the Executive pa.s.sed a resolution at their meeting held on April 24th that Mr. Nicholls and Mr.

Winfrey be requested to take steps to have the agricultural labourers included in any scheme of arbitration that might be formed. They also instructed me to write every branch that when they desired increase in wages they must communicate with me and that I would suggest what action was to be taken, and that I was to advise all members to sign a paper requesting a rise, and that I be instructed to enclose the same and forward it to each employer. Here were more superhuman responsibilities placed on my shoulders, making me absolutely responsible for every trouble that might arise. As I look at these old minutes that were pa.s.sed, without complaining of the action of the Executive, I sometimes wonder what kind of man the Executive thought I was. They must have thought I was superhuman, which I was not by any means, for I had very serious limitations. Never before had any one man such grave responsibilities put upon him, and I knew it and it worried me beyond degree. But I faced the work with great faith in the eternal resources and trust in Divine help.

I had, however, one great trouble. My dear wife, who had been such a help to me, began to fail in health, both mentally and bodily, and I saw the end was coming. During the summer it was my misfortune to be insulted by a drunken man, a son of a small farmer at Sharrington. I was advertised to address a meeting near the old cross at Sharrington. On my arrival at the place of meeting this man lay on the green drunk. As soon as I commenced to speak he commenced to brawl and shout so that no one could be heard. When I asked him to be quiet he got up and struck me a violent blow in the chest. What else he would have done had he not been stopped I am unable to say. As it was I was laid up for a week and had to go to a doctor. The man was summoned before the Holt Bench and he was fined 1.

The Executive at the meeting held on April 24th decided that the Union should be affiliated with the Trade Union Congress, and that we should pay on the basis of 3,000 members. I was elected delegate to attend the Congress at Ipswich on September 6th, which I did, and had a most cordial reception by the delegates and was especially mentioned in the President's address. I attended the Congress and spoke on the system of tied cottages. Mr. Smillie, on behalf of the miners, moved the following resolution:--

This Congress urges upon the Labour Members in the House of Commons to take up at once the question of the eviction of workmen and their families from their homes during trade disputes and do everything possible to pa.s.s into law a measure that would put an end to this cruel method of warfare.

Although this resolution did not quite meet the case of the agricultural labourer, I supported it, as it gave me an opportunity to bring before the public's notice the difficult position the tied cottage system put the agricultural labourers in. I made the following speech:--

The delegates coming from the large centres of industry have no idea of the seriousness of the question from the standpoint of the agricultural labourers. If a town worker is evicted from his house he can soon get another in an adjoining street. That is not the case with the agricultural labourer. If he is evicted from his cottage he cannot get another in the same village nor in any of the five or six villages near him. I hold in my hand a copy of an agreement which an agricultural labourer has to enter into with the landlord on some estates before he takes his cottage. It reads as follows:--

"I, the undersigned, agree to hire the cottage in the Parish of................the property of....................at a rental of................and agree to give the cottage up at a week's notice should the landlord require it for any other workman.

I also agree not to keep any pigs or fowls without first obtaining permission from the landlord or his agent.

I will also act as night-watchman when required, and give any information I may have that will lead to the conviction of anyone seen poaching on the estate.

I also undertake not to harbour any of my family who may misconduct themselves in any way.

I also agree on leaving my cottage to hand over my copper and oven to the landlord or his agent and not to disturb the bricks or to remove these utensils until the landlord or his agent have refused to purchase them.

I will also undertake to live at peace with my neighbours and to lead an honest and respectable life.

I will, before admitting any of my family home, apply to the landlord or his agent for permission, giving particulars on a form provided by the landlord, their names and ages, also if married or single, and how long they want to stay."