A LABOUR LEADER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 668, 19 November 1909, Page 7

A LABOUR LEADER.

ME. CEOOKS ON HIS WAY TO NEW ZEALAND. (By Telegraph-Press ABsoclatlon-Copyrljht-l Sydney, November 18. Mr. Will Crooks, tho Labour mombor for Woolwich, is a passenger by tho Mahcno, for Auckland. A REMARKABLE CAREER. ' Mr. Will Crooks, M.P., who is about to visit Now Zealand, and will bo officially welcomed by the Mayor of Wellington, is ono of tho most prominent figures in tho Brihih Labour party. Ho has a magnoho personality and an interesting history. Born in tho unpromising environment of Poplar, S.E., ho graduated oarly in tno school of poverty and want. His father, a ship-stoker, was disabled by an accident, which necessitated tho amputation 6f his leg, and the burden of maintaining the family fell mainly upon tho shouldore ot the mother, as none of her sovoa children were old onough to earn anything. Crying For Bread. One night, as she worked alone with needle and thread, under circumstances recalling Hood's "Song of tho Shirt," joung Will woke up in his little box bedstead by the nail, where ho slept with three of tho other children. bilontly ho \yatchcd her plying the needle at tho table until ho notjeed tears trickling down her cheeks." "What are you crying for, mothcrf "Never mind. Will, my boy, yon go to slepp," "lint you must bo crying about somothing, mother." And then, in a doleful tone, she said: 'Ifa through wondering where tho next moal is coming from, my boy." The littlo fellow shut hie oyos, but lay awako saying to himself , "My mother crying because sho can't get bread for us I Why oan't sho got bread? I saw plenty of bread in the ehops yestorday. Do all mothers have to cry before they can get bread for their children?" i It was the first inoidont that made him faint. , Sixpence a Week. After a while, having arrived at tho mature age of eight, he matriculated as an assistant to a milkman at sixpence per neck His working day began at a quaitcr to fhe in tho morning. In spite of all the mother's and tho crippled father's offorts, however, the/ could not keep tho homo together, and the children had to go to the workhouse. Mr. Crooks has told pathotio stones of his workhouse experiences. Tho guardians, it Booms, were a heartless lot, and tho Crooks children had as bad a timo of it as Oliver Twist. After a whilo Will got work in a smithy at five shillings a week, but without any prospect of advancement beyond the rank of, a blacksmith's labourer.' His mother was'ambitious for him to learn a trade, and, much as she needed that five shillings, 6ho sacrificed half of it to apprentico him to a cooper. -; .e&lhi 01 UUo "Tramping Across England. Ho became a very efficient workman and was put on journeyman's full wages-tho first week after ho was out of his apprenticeship. All went well'for two or three yedrs, so well that ho was able to marry: but after a whilo ho is heard of tramping to Liverpool in search of employment. "It is a, weird experience, this, of wandering through L'ngland in search of a job," ho says. "You keep your hoart up so long as you havo something in your stomach, but whon hunger steals upon you then you despair. Footsore and listless at tho same time, you simply loso all interest in tho future." Ho found odd jobs in Liverpool, but no regular work, and as his wife could not endure the place after they lost their only child, ho decided at her earnest request U< tako hia ■ chanco ono.more in. London. In Search of Work. ' Hero is his own account of a day's experience of tramping for work in London: , "I first went down to tho riverside at Shndwoll. No work was to bo had there Then I called at another place in Limehonso. No hands wanted. So I looked in at homo and got two slices of bread in paper and walled eight miles to a cooper's yard in Tottenham. All in vain. I dragged mysolf baek to Clorbsnwoll. ,81111 no luck- Then I turned tonai'ds homo in despair. By tho timo I reachod Stepney, I was dead beat, so I called at a friend's in Commercial Road for a little rest They gave mo 60ino Irish stew and twopenco to ride home. I managed to walk home and gave tho twopence to my wife. She needed it badly. That year I know I walked London until my limbs aohod again. I remember re-' turning home once by way of Tidal Basin, and turning into the Viotoria -Docks,'6o utterly exhausted that I sank down upon a coil of ropes and slept for hours. Another day I tramped as far as Beckton, again to no purpose. I must have expressed keen disappointment in my face, for the good fellows in tho cooperage there made a collection .for mo, and I camo home that night with one and 60>enpence."

Crooks , ! College. '■ '■' >'. [■■': -'- : v -" Then ho tried> to get taken on'as a dock labourer,. but the struggling orbwds at the fates disheartened; him. He felt that as he ad a, trade he had no right to add to the fierce competition of the unskilled/ men. After more;, Buffering, he' at, length,found permanent work; and a;brighter, day,dawned for him. With regular employment ;assured he was able to turn his-attention to, public affairs, arid especially to.. the Labour movement.' He collected a small library. He also started.ot the dock gates a 'series of Sunday, morning addresses, and soon attracted crowds by, his earnest appeals.aglow with touches of honielj; huinbnr and pathos. : These- dook-gate gatherings became familiarly ; known ,as "Crooks's College." The great dock'strike of 1889, in which he took a prominent part, pnt him into the front .rank of Labour, leaders. Political Success.; .'■..- ■ ■;,.':•'..•■■'.•;V: '■'■■';. ./','.' ' : Mr. Crooks,was elected.to the London County Council in 1892, and since then'has been chairtaan of the Poplar Board of Guardians, and ;Mayor of Poplar. At the Woolwich hynslec;hon in 1003, he won the greatest parliamentary , triumph for Labour ever recorded in ; Great Bntaiu,. defeating Mr, (i. Draee (Conservative) by; a majority of 3229 votes; Before that time' Woolwich had been regarded as a stronghold: of the Conservatives. At the four preceding elections, bapfc to 1892 Conservatives lad been returned,by large majorities, or had been returned uhoppbsed. Mr. , Crooks's, majority at the last election wns 2112. His, success was attributed largely to his personal popularity in the district, and to his .vigorous electoral campaign. Open-air meetings in the dinner hour for the Arsenal and Dockyard men gave him excellont opportunities for the use of a powerful, voice, and' a notable gift of natural elo■qhence.'. ■.:.'.■"■"•, '■:"-.'*. ■' '■■.'■'.■; ■'.'.■ ;.;■>.■■;.■:,:,■,■„ • Ho' still lives, or did until not long ago, in a 'workman's cottage, and he has .declined tempting-offers that woiild enable him to rise out of the class to which he is proud to belong/ His; thoroughgoing admirers declare that the finest work ho has done is in the dirodtion of,- humanising the workhouse' system',' but that is a matter on which'bpiiiioris legitimately differ: In 1906, Mr.. Davy,- Chiof Inspector ,'ol : the Local Government Board,, reported ia ■ strong terms .on: ' the ■administration of: the" Poplar Board; of Guardians. He' cohdemned tho; Labour policy" of 'tho Guardians ■'. undir Mr. r Crooks's; leadership::as tending to. the ■■ pauperisation ; of. the inhabitants, pointed put that rthere; was-no i oharge. against the : personal integrity'"..of ;Mr,, : ,Crooks, •:■,{*■■■'.■ ■',::, ; His popularity does not eedm to have suffered from-tho inquiry, and it. is said that whenever \ there is any ■ sort of domestic trouble - among his neighbours at Poplar, the first arbiter and •adviser. they tliink of Bonding for li ths.meiu> ,', •'•'■ ■■•.-• ■■"•.■ ■■:."]