The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Vol. 2

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'Des qu'on nous parle d'un homme d'etat etranger, ministre ou
diplomate,' says M. Joseph Reinach, writing of Sir Charles, 'c'est notre
premiere question: Aime-t-il la France? C'est une sottise. Un Italien
n'aime que l'Italie, un Russe n'aime que la Russie, un Anglais n'aime
que l'Angleterre.' It may be so. In 1887 Sir Charles wrote to M. Reinach
concerning the possibility that Bismarck would attack France, which, he
added, 'everybody thinks likely except your humble servant, Lord Lyons,
and Sir E. Malet, our new man at Berlin.' If it did happen, said he,
'whatever use I can be I shall be, either if I can best serve France by
writing here, or by coming to be a private of volunteers and by giving
all I can to the French ambulances.' Some there are who can recall Sir
Charles's face as he turned over the pages of M. Boutet de Monvel's
_Jeanne d'Arc_, and dwelt on that first picture in which the little
'piou-pious' of the modern army advance, under the flag on which are
inscribed the battles of the past; while the Old Guard rises from the
earth to reinforce their ranks, and the ghostly figure of Jeanne d'Arc,
symbolizing the spirit of France, leads on to victory. Listening as he
talked, his hearers became infected with Sir Charles's spirit, and
thinking of the past, looking to the future, he so kindled them that
when he closed the book they all were 'lovers of France.'

CHAPTER LII

LABOUR

1870-1911

I.

'From 1870 to this date one man has stood for all the great causes of
industrial progress, whether for the agricultural labourers, or in the
textile trades, or in the mining industries, or with the shop
assistants. That man is Sir Charles Dilke.' So, in 1910, spoke Dr. Gore,
the present Bishop of Oxford, at that time Bishop of Birmingham.

In Sir Charles's early days, economists were still governed by
individualist doctrines. The school of _laissez faire_ was the
prevailing school of thought, and in its teaching he was trained. "We
were all Tory anarchists once," was his own summary of the views which
characterized that economic theory. But to "let alone" industrial misery
early became for Sir Charles a counsel of despair. _Greater Britain_,
published in 1868, when he was twenty-five, gave indications of a change
of view, and his close friendship with John Stuart Mill directly
furthered this development. Mill's lapses into heresy from the orthodox
economics of the day were notable, and Sir Charles was wont to point to
a passage written by Mill in the forties showing that sweated wages
depressed all wages, and to claim him as the pioneer of the minimum
wage.

It was left for Mill's disciple to become one of the foremost champions
of the legislation which now protects the industrial conditions of the
worker, and also the guardian of its effective administration.

His policy was distinguished by his determination to act with those for
whom the legislation was created, and to induce them to inspire and to
demand measures for their own protection. The education of the
industrial class, the object of "helping the workers to help
themselves," was never absent from his mind. This view went farther than
the interest of a class: he held the stability of the State itself to be
menaced by the existence of an unorganized and depressed body of
workers. An organized and intelligent corporate demand put forward by
trained leaders chosen from the workers' own ranks was essential to the
development and stability of industrial conditions and to appropriate
legislation. Sir Charles was therefore the unwavering advocate of
trade-unionism. It is worth while to emphasize his attitude, since views
now generally accepted were not popular in the sixties. His first speech
to his Chelsea electors in 1867 dealt with his trade-union position, as
it did with the need for strengthening the Factory Acts.

Violent utterances on the part of certain sections of Labour did not
affect his advocacy of its claims, for he would have endorsed the words
of Cardinal Manning written to him on September 13th, 1884: "It is the
cause of the people mismanaged by imprudent and rough words and deeds;
but a people suffering long and stung by want of sympathy cannot speak
like county magistrates." During the later period of his life he tried,
at innumerable meetings all over Great Britain, to help trade-unionists
to make their claims understood. So he came to fill "a unique position
as counsellor, friend, and adviser to the Labour cause." [Footnote:
Letter from the Rt. Hon. George Barnes, Labour M.P. for the Blackfriars
division of Glasgow, and Minister for Pensions in Mr. Lloyd George's
Government of 1916, once general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of
Engineers.]

His belief in trade-unionism was never shaken; for though he did not
pretend that in the distant future trade-unionism would be sufficient to
redress all social ills, holding it, as Lady Dilke did, to be, not "the
gospel of the future, but salvation for the present," he believed that
during his lifetime it was far from having perfected its work. He was a
strong municipal Socialist, but with regard to State Socialism he would
never bind himself to any general theory; he was in favour of large
experiments and of noting those made elsewhere; beyond this he "did not
see his way."

His faith in the maintenance of all safeguards for trade-unions was well
demonstrated by his action on the occasion of the Taff Vale judgment and
its sequel. [Footnote: _Taff Vale Judgment_.--As trade-unions were not
incorporated, it was generally assumed that they could not be sued, but
in 1900 Mr. Justice Farwell decided that a trade-union registered under
the Trade-Union Acts, 1871 and 1876, might be sued in its registered
name; and this decision, after being reversed in the Court of Appeal,
was restored by the House of Lords in 1901. The result of this case (the
Taff Vale Railway Company _v_. the Amalgamated Society of Railway
Servants) was that damages could be obtained against a trade-union for
the acts of their officials in "picketing" during a strike; and by
making the trustees in whom the funds were vested defendants, an order
could be obtained for the payment of damages and costs out of the
accumulated funds of the trade-union.] He wished to keep for them the
inviolability of corporate funds which formed their strength and staying
power. While he admitted that theoretically a good case could be made
out against such inviolability, he was clear that in practice it was
essential to the continued existence of Labour as an organized force,
capable of self-defensive action. The conference on the effect of the
Taff Vale decision held in October, 1901, was arranged by him after
consultation with Mr. Asquith, who suggested Sir Robert Reid and Mr.
Haldane as legal assessors. How grave was the position which the
judgment had created may be gathered from the declaration of Mr. Asquith
in a letter to Sir Charles written on December 5th, 1901: "How to
conduct a strike legally now, I do not know." He advised the
introduction of two Bills, one to deal with the question of trade-union
funds, the other with picketing, etc. In April, 1902, Sir Charles Dilke
introduced the deputation, organized to ask for special facilities for
discussion, to Lord James of Hereford, who received it on behalf of the
Cabinet, and to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as Leader of the
Opposition.

In an article contributed by him to the _Independent Review_ of June,
1904, he notes a private offer of the Government for dealing with the
matter by a small Royal Commission of experts, whose recommendations
should be immediately followed by legislation. This was refused by the
Labour leaders, and he thought it a lost opportunity for what might have
been a favourable settlement. [Footnote: Mr. D. J. Shackleton, an
Insurance Commissioner, and appointed Permanent Under-Secretary of the
Ministry of Labour in December, 1916, was in 1906 M.P. for Clitheroe,
and a prominent member of the Labour party. He writes of the passing of
the Trade Disputes Act, which reversed the Taff Vale judgment: "It was
my privilege to be the spokesman for the Labour party and Joint Board on
the Trade Disputes Bill in the House of Commons. On the evening when the
Bill was read a third time in the House of Lords, the three National
Committees gave me a complimentary dinner at the House of Commons. In
the course of my speech in reply to the toast, I expressed, on behalf of
the Labour movement and myself, our sincere and grateful thanks to Sir
Charles for the very valuable help he had given us through all our
Parliamentary fights. My consultations with him whilst the Bill was
before the House were almost daily. On many occasions he crossed the
floor to give me points in answer to speeches that were made in
opposition to the Labour position."] But at the same time 'the Taff Vale
judgment virtually brought the separate Labour party into existence, and
the difficulty of upsetting the judgment and of amending the law of
conspiracy will,' he said, 'nurture, develop, and fortify it in the
future.' To him this was matter for satisfaction. [Footnote: A full
account of the action taken by Sir Charles on the Taff Vale judgment and
the Trade Disputes Act which reversed its decision will be found in
Appendix II. to this chapter, furnished by Miss Mary Macarthur (now Mrs.
W. C. Anderson). Miss Macarthur, secretary of the Women's Trade-Union
League from 1903, worked with Sir Charles on many questions.]

His absence from the House of Commons from 1886 to 1892 gave him leisure
for deep study of industrial questions, and he drew much of illustration
and advice from his knowledge of colonial enterprise in social reform.
Thus, in his advocacy of a general eight-hour day, observation of
colonial politics largely guided his suggestions. In his first speech in
the Forest of Dean in 1889, he said: "Australia has tried experiments
for us, and we have the advantage of being able to note their success or
failure before we imitate or vary them at home." The experiments in
regard to regulation of hours and wages which colonial analogy justified
should, he urged, be carried out by Government and by the municipalities
as employers and in their contracts. His visits to our Colonies were
followed by constant correspondence with Colonial statesmen, especially
with Mr. Deakin, and the introduction here of minimum-wage legislation
may be traced to Sir Charles's close study of Colonial experiment.

But he never narrowed his policy to developments which would confine the
leaders of Labour to the management of the internal affairs of their
trade-unions; he early urged the representation of Labour by Labour in
Parliament, where its influence on legislation affecting its interests
would be direct, and there is a note in his Diary in 1906, when the
"Labour party" in Parliament came into existence, chronicling the
"triumph of the principles" to which during his life that part of his
activities devoted to Labour had been given.

In 1894, when the Independent Labour party was emerging into light, he
had advocated in talks with Labour friends its development into the
Labour party of later days. But he noted the limits which bounded his
own co-operation except as an adviser: "My willingness to sink home
questions and join the Tories in the event of a war, and my wish to
increase the white army in India and the fleet--even as matters
stand--are a bar."

There were those who prophesied that the Labour party's appearance had
no permanent interest; that it owed its existence to political crises,
and would soon fade out of the life of Parliament. Sir Charles, on the
contrary, was clear that it constituted a definite and permanent feature
in Parliamentary life. It might vary in number and in efficiency; it
might, like other parties, have periods of depression; but it was
henceforth a factor to be reckoned with in politics. Its power, however,
must largely depend upon its independence. The point to which an
independent party can carry its support of the Government in power must
not be overstepped, and when, as in 1910, in the case of the "Osborne
judgment" [Footnote: Mr. Osborne was a member of the Amalgamated Society
of Railway Servants. He brought an action against them for a declaration
that the rule providing contribution for Parliamentary representation is
invalid, and for an injunction to restrain the funds being used in this
way. He was successful in the Court of Appeal and in the House of Lords
(A.S. of R.S. _v_. Osborne, 1910, A.C., 87). This practically made it
impossible for trade-unions to support the Labour party.] or the
Unemployed Bill, he thought that he detected weakening in the ranks of
the Labour party in their fight for these Bills, he noted it gravely.

His view that Labour should find its leaders in its own ranks was not
shared by Chamberlain and others who initiated Labour legislation;
[Footnote: April, 1893, letter to Dilke from Chamberlain: "A political
leader having genuine sympathy with the working classes and a political
programme could, in my opinion, afford to set them [Labour leaders]
aside." Reference to this letter has been made also in Chapter XLIX., p.
288.] but Dilke's principle was to act as spokesman for Labour only so
long as it stood in need of an interpreter; when the movement had
attained stability and become articulate, his work as the advocate who
had expressed its aspirations and compelled public attention for them
was done.

His policy did not involve his silence on points in which he differed
from the Labour party. In his first speech in the House of Commons in
1893, on the question of the destitute alien, he did not agree with some
trade representatives, who would in those days have excluded aliens, in
fear of their competition. His dissection of the figures on which the
plea of exclusion was based showed that they were misleading, since
emigration and immigration were not accurately compared. He maintained
that protective legislation with regard to conditions and wages would
deal with the danger from competition which the trades feared, and he
pointed out that anti-alien legislation must strike at the root of that
right of asylum which had always been a distinguishing feature of
British policy.

He met the contention of those who wished for a Labour Ministry by
pointing out that co-ordination and readjustment, not addition to the
number of Ministers, was needed. The size of our Cabinets was
responsible for many governmental weaknesses in a country where
Ministers were already far more numerous than was the case in other
great European countries; too numerous to be accommodated on the
Treasury Bench, and with salaries which would almost have met the cost
of payment of members.

From Labour developments everything was to be hoped, and nothing to be
feared, in the interests of the State or community. The only danger
which menaced the gradual and wise evolution of Labour was "an
unsuccessful war." The danger to peaceful evolution from such a war
would be great indeed. He warned those who advocated the settlement of
international difficulties by arbitration, that this result could only
be obtained when the workers of the different countries were in a
position to arrive at settlement by this means. Till then we could not
neglect any precaution for Imperial Defence.

Complete data are needed to carry out efficient work, and to Sir
Charles's orderly mind the confusion of our Labour and other statistics,
and the absence of correlation arising from their production by
different departments, were a source of constant irritation. Both by
question and speech in the House of Commons and as President of the
Statistical Society he laboured to obtain inquiry into "this
overlapping, to obtain co-ordination of statistics and the possibility
of combining enforcement with economy under one department," instead of
under three or four. [Footnote: Sir Bernard Mallet, Registrar-General,
gives an account of Sir Charles's work in this direction. See Appendix
I. to this chapter.]

Trade-unionism had by no means achieved "its perfected work," and
outside the highly organized trades there was a vast unorganized mass of
labour, largely that of women. The existence of such a body of workers
undermined the Labour position, and of all Sir Charles's efforts to
improve industrial conditions none is more noteworthy than that which
was done by himself and Lady Dilke for women and children. His wife's
work for the Women's Trade-Union League, to which are affiliated women's
trade-unions (the League increased its membership from ten to seventy
thousand during her lifetime), brought him increasingly in touch with
women's work; and, from his return to Parliament in 1892 to the end,
scarcely a month in any Session passed without many questions being put
by him in the House of Commons on points dealing with their needs. These
questions tell in themselves a history of a long campaign; sometimes
dealing with isolated cases of suffering, such as accident or death from
ill-guarded machinery, or a miscarriage of justice through the hide-
bound conservatism of some country bench; sometimes forming part of a
long series of interrogatories, representing persistent pressure
extending over many years, directed to increased inspection, to the
enforcement of already existing legislation, or to the promotion of new.
The results were shown not only by redress of individual hardships and
by the general strengthening of administration, but by the higher
standard reached in the various measures of protective legislation which
were passed during his lifetime. Nearly every Bill for improving Labour
conditions, for dealing with fines and deductions, for procuring
compensation for accident, bore the stamp of his work. [Footnote: As
Minister he helped in measures far outside his department. Mr. W. J.
Davis, father of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade-Union
Congress, tells how once, at Dilke's own suggestion, he and Mr.
Broadhurst came to see Sir Charles, then Under-Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, about the Employers' Liability Bill and the Contracting-out
Clause. "We spent an hour with him in the smoking-room," says Mr. Davis,
"and left, Sir Charles having agreed to see the full Committee at 9.30
next morning. The House did not rise until 3 a.m., but Sir Charles was
at our offices in Buckingham Street prompt to time. In the afternoon he
met a few of us again, to consider an amendment for extending the time
for the commencement of an action to six months instead of six weeks.
This desirable alteration he succeeded in obtaining. When the Bill was
passed--which, with all its faults, restored the workers' rights to
compensation for life and limb--there was no member of the Government,
even including the Home Secretary (Sir William Harcourt), from whom the
Parliamentary Committee had received such valuable help as from the
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs."]

Characteristically he mustered for use every scrap of information
available on a subject. Thus, he detected in the Employment of Children
Act (1903) powers which neither the framers nor the promoters of the Act
had foreseen, and, by speech and question, pressed their use till these
previously unknown powers of protection for children were exercised by
the officials to the full. Equally characteristic was his fashion of
utilizing his specialized knowledge of regulations in one department in
order to drive home his point in another. Thus, having cited the case of
a stunted child told off to carry loads amounting to 107 pounds, he was
able to add the information that, "in regulating the weight to be lifted
by blue-jackets in working quick-firing guns, the limit was put at 100
pounds."

His care for women workers was not confined to public advocacy; it
showed itself in unostentatious and unremitting help to those who worked
with him or came to him for advice. Such advice was not confined to
large questions of policy: he spent himself as faithfully on the
smallest points of detail which made for the efficiency of the work. His
knowledge furnished "briefs" for that group of workers which his wife's
care for the Women's Trade-Union League drew round them both, and it
guided and inspired their campaign. He watched every publication of the
League. However busy, he would find time to correct the proofs of
articles brought to him, to dissect Blue-books and suggest new points;
each quarter he read the review which was issued of the League's work.

The man who knows, and is ready to help, is early surrounded by clients.
Tributes from the organizers and leaders of the great trades are as
frequent as the testimony to his help which came from workers in
unorganized and sweated trades. The representative of a mining
constituency in later years, his work for the miners was great, and
repaid by their trust and support. [Footnote: "During the whole of his
Parliamentary life he was always ready and willing to help the miners,
assist in preparing and drafting Mines Bills, regulations for increased
safety in mines, and the eight hours. He was in charge of the Mines
Regulation Amendment Bill, bringing it before the House every Session
until the Government appointed a Royal Commission, and ultimately
brought in a Bill which became an Act of Parliament. By his tact and
influence he managed some years ago to get a short Bill passed raising
the working age underground from twelve to thirteen," writes Mr. T.
Ashton, secretary of the Miners' Federation.] From a standpoint which
gives an estimate of all his Labour work come these words from Mr.
Sidney Webb:

"He was an unfailing resource in every emergency. No one will ever
know how much the Progressive Movement, in all its manifestations,
owed to his counsel, his great knowledge, and his unsparing
helpfulness. Trade-unionism among women as well as men; the movement
for amending and extending factory legislation; the organization of
the Labour forces in the House of Commons, are only some of the
causes in which I have myself witnessed the extraordinary
effectiveness which his participation added. There has probably been
no other instance in which the workmen alike in the difficulties of
trade-union organization and amid the complications of Parliamentary
tactics have had constantly at their service the services of a man
of so much knowledge and such extensive experience of men and
affairs. But the quality that more than any other impressed me in
Sir Charles Dilke as I knew him was his self-effacement. He seemed
to have freed himself, not only from personal ambitions, but also
from personal resentments and personal vanity. What was remarkable
was that this 'selflessness' had in it no element of 'quietism.' He
retained all the keenness of desire for reform, all the zest of
intellectual striving, and all the optimism, of the enthusiast."

II.

That "true Imperialism" which Sir Charles advocated was never more
clearly shown than in matters of Social Reform. His demand that we
should learn from the example of our Colonies was dictated by his desire
to promote the homogeneity of the Empire. He believed in developing our
institutions according to the national genius, and he viewed, for
example, with distrust the tendency to import into this country such
schemes as that of contributory National Sickness Insurance on a German
pattern. His attitude during the early debates on Old-Age Pensions
helped to secure a non-contributory scheme. He laid, then as always,
special stress on the position of those workers who never receive a
living wage and already suffer from heavy indirect taxation, holding
that to take from such as these is to reduce still further their
vitality and efficiency. During the debates on the Workmen's
Compensation Act he urged the extension of the principle to out-workers
and to all trades. The protection should be universal and compulsory.

In a speech of April 27th, 1907, he promised to "fight to the death any
scheme of Old-Age Pensions based on thrift or on the workers'
contributions." Later, when the proposals as to workmen's insurance were
nebulous, but nevertheless pointed to a contributory scheme, he,
criticizing some words of Mr. Haldane's, spoke his anxiety lest "to have
a system for all labour, including the underpaid labour of unskilled
women, based on contributions by the individual, might involve the
difficulty expressly avoided by the Government in the case of pensions--
namely, the use of public money to benefit the better-paid class of
labour, inapplicable to the worst-paid class, but largely based on
taxation which the latter paid." One of his last pencillings on the
margin of an article reviewing the Government's forecast of the scheme
for sickness insurance includes a note of regret and indignation at the
apparent omission to make any special provision for the lowest-paid
classes of workers.