MR. PHILIP SNOWDEN

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2266, 28 September 1914, Page 9

MR. PHILIP SNOWDEN

AND HIS WIFE A CHARACTER SKETCH (By Evdfcn Isitt.) The fact that Mr. and: Mrs. Philip Snowden are about to. visit New Zenland seems to me extraordinarily interesting; they are such an exceptionally" brilliant pair; they loom 60 large in the public eyo and play so great a- part in social reforms here, I wonder what they will think of New Zealand, and what New Zealand will think of them. Above all, I wonder what New Zealand will think of her, tho most popular woman on tho Suffrage platform to-day, the most eloquent woman in England—the finest woman speaker, I am told, in all Europe—but of that I cannot judge. She is, I should say, a typo Of English feminism at its very best, only she is not militant, and in all honesty I'"must : say ; that to my mind the very finest liower of-.'English womanhood, is found in the militant ranks. But she is a good fighter and a magnificent champion of the cause she places first among all reforms. It should be noted, by the way, that she and her husband aro the first people to tour New Zealand on the Temperance question wlio are ■• more clearly identified in the public mind with other great reforms.

"Lady Snowden, of Baron's Court, belongs to the proudest and mo6t exelusive 6et in English society," wrote an enthusiastic young American interviewer during that first visit of hers to the United States, when lier youth and beauty and her eloquence took great audiences by storm. . Indigantly the wife of the Socialist leader informed that young man through a friend that 6he was Mrs. Snowden,, and that Baron's Court was a \Vest London district, liot her family' seat. He was unabashed. "Do you mean to tell me," he demanded over the telephone, "that that lovely woman is not Lady Snowden; Then J. guess the British nation • just ought to be ashamed of itself." "Not since Frances Willard," wrote an American; at that time, "has there been an English-speaking woman with such.a.gift of oratory, so; much megnetism, or such persuasive; sweetness of manner and ability to move great bodies of inen and women." ' He was probably a Suffragist, and I am more impressed by the casually overheard testimony of one of the anti-Suffragist lecturers and organisers who was discussing rather loudly in bis corner of the dinmg-room the characteristics of various famous speakers. "No, if you want a real thrill," he was saying,i "you should go and hear Mrs. Philip Snowden. I admit she is a marvellous speaker." Various -womon who havo been associated' with her have told mo of the fine work she has' done. ' Mrs.- Fawcett, the valiant old leader of the, biggest Suffrage society'in England, speaks of her as one of their "very best public speakers, foremost in the ranks of tho most effective advocates of the cause," and only those who know'the.surprisingly high standard- of public speaking attained by the leading women here, a standard on the whole probably much higher than that of the men, will know and understand what if means for so.young a woman to have reaohed 6uch pre-enii-nence. Mrs. Chapman Catt, the leader of the American Suffragists, who has a . wider knowledge of the feminist movement and.feminist leaders : through-, out the world than * any/.joth'er' woman' has told me of the extraordinary success of the several lecturing tours Mrs. Snowden has made in America and Canada, and;l have on various occasions heard the women, here try to analyse the secret,of Mrs. Snowden's power over her:audience. For it is a secret. ; I remember the first time I heard her address a great audience in Glasgow, hard-heaued Glasgow. She was speaking of the easy resort to stimulants in cases of fatigue. "I need no stimulants," she said, "perhaps later on I'll.tell you how I find stimulus when mentally exhausted." Then she passed on to other points. Fifteen minutes later she paused and looked doubtfully at the audience, which by this time was listening breathlessly. "I think I'll tell you what my source of.stimulus is," she said questioning!?, aiid, like children, the audience applauded enthusiastically. For the moment nothing in the wide world interested it so much as Mrs. Snowden her fascinating personality, her simple little secret. "I know," said someone to whom I said this. "It is a most extraordinary magnetism that she possesses. No ono else would have that effect." ■

And now, who is Mrs. Snowden, the woman.who has, they say", come to the front more rapidly than any other man or woman since Spurgeon's day. It must and charm and eloquence. There is a not be imagined that she is all sunshine great deal more to be said about her than that, and she served a severe, if brief, apprenticeshiD, before she readied her present position in England's public lire. It was when taking her course at Liverpool Training College that she fell under tho influence of Dr. Aked, and found all her enthusiasm turning in the direction of practical racial reform and it was when working in the awful Liverpool slums that she learned how heavily the drink traffic lays its hand on women and children. Her first work •engaged her in a pledge-signing campaign; then she began to'understand her power as a speaker, and became more_ and more in request _ for public meetings, till people attending conferences carried homo stories of her success, and very soon she was booked for all the engagements she could possibly fill.' Now she averages 200 meetings a year. The transition from the Temperance to the Suffrage platform is an easy one here. The despeair of unhappy social conditions is followed by a conviction that unfranchised women cannot hope to change them, and Mrs. Snowden was simply acting in harmony with many of the keenest champions of many reforms when she determined to devote her energies to suffrago propaganda, and not to speak for societies , which would tolerate no reference to that movement.

How many women's societies she is connected with I do not know, hut I know that for years she belonged to the Lyceum Club, and was a member of its Public Service Board; that she belongs to tho International Franchise Club; that she is a vice-president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies; a member of the Women Writers' Suffrage League. Did I say that she was a ver.y successful journalist and author? She is. of course, a vice-presi-dent of the British Women's Temperance Association, and she is now a member of the Council of the Women's Municipal Party, the organisation founded by the energetic and very capable Duches of Marlborough to give effect to women's wishes in municipal affairs. She is, in short, a woman who "counts" tremendously here. _ I notice that the National Union, in its official sketch of her says that much of the success and strength of the Labour and Socialist parties in Parliament is due in no small degree to the success of her house-cleaning efforts in tho earlier days, when she led a vigorous crusade against the heavy drinking in Labour and Socialist clubs. She is, of course, very closely in touch with Parliament nowadays, for Mr. Snowden has his own room at the House of Commons. They have a houso at Hamptsead, hut ever since her marraige. I am told, they have virtually, lived at tho House of Commons. Of Philip Snowden personally I know very little. I have heard him speak on more than one occasion, when ho produced a peculiarly electrifying effect on his Hudionco, but on neither occasion did

he rouse them to the pitch of wild enthusiasm ono hears about. My solitary attempt to interview him made mo very sorry for Now Zealand pressmen. He fixed mo with his vivid blue eyes, the eyos of a sailorman, sot in the face of a lawyer, and said coolly, "I'won't be interviewed.'' Ho jabbed the tabic- violently with his'pencil. "But of course I can't be interviewed," he related. ''Ask me what I think and I'll tell you, but I can't talk about what I have done." Ho waved his hand. "Besides, it's all in papers and books and things." _ \ He was quite eager to talk about New Zealand. In fact on that occasion it was Philip Snowden and his wife, who interviewed me, asking endless questions about New Zealand. They are looking forward with' intense interest to their trip, and seem especially pleased at the prospect of seeing the back country. She is very keen to see all that the women .are doing, and both of course are anxious to see social legislation in practice, though he is inclined to think New Zealand has less to teach by object lesson now than she had fifteen years ago, for England has adopted such progressive legislation, and in its insurance against sickness and unemployment lias gone farther than New Zealand.

, It is truly in "books and tilings" l that' one finds impressions of Philip ; Snowden, that heroic figure .whoso sud- [ den leap to fame so caught the popular , imagination. In one of the brilliant ; sketches in his "Prophets, Priests, and I Kings," A. G. Gardiner tells how , Philip Snowdon came into politics, and . how m the "khaki election' 1 of 1900 he . shook Blackburn, for twontv years the . Gibraltar of Toryism, to its foundations. "He came limping into the lists on foot, alone, unattended, no ono to re- ',' ceive him, no organisation to work for i him, no money at his command. _ For , Philip Snowden wrought a miracle. That election will never be forgotten by thos9 who witnessed it. It was a re- , vival movement gathering momentum with every hour. Philip Snowden's name was on every lip, his sayings ran like rumour'through-the weaving-sheds and tho street. Men in their greasy caps, and carrying their kits, hurried from the mills to his meetings, and sat as if hypnotised under the spell of revelation. He fought'the battle absolutely 'single-handed, and he fought it with a dignity of spirit rare in politics. In a fortnight, in spite of the crushing odds, he had shaken the citadel." Six years later he won the first great victory of Socialism in that same town. Wells, iu his "New Machiavelli," which, whatever one may think of its morals, is an astonishingly clever picture of this London, has given a glimpse of the first appearance in the House of the "seagreen incorruptible," speaking on the Address, "a slender, twisted figure, supporting itself on a stick, and speaking with a fire that was" altogether revolutionary, Philip Snowden ,the member for Blackburn." "I am told that he has not been a Parliamentary success," wrote A. G. Gardiner, in 1908. "It would be strange. But I doubt whether there is any man living to-day with an equal power of moving great bodies of men to a certain exaltation of spirit of communicating his own passion to others, if giving, to politics something of the fervour of religious emotion." The aspect of the-House has changed. "Snowden increasingly commands the ear of the House," a member told mo the other day.', "He is the intellect of the Labour Party. They 3ay he commitsmost of his best speeches to memory, and it looks like that. -He is slow and clear in his enunciation, direct and lucid in his logic, and deadly in his criticism." "Mrs. Snowden," adds my informant, "is, invmy opinion; the best woman' speaker; on ..tho., British.' platform.'" •' '•" '' ''''■' - Philip Snowden is _ one of the most heroic figures in politics. . Perhaps few even'of his' friends realise the overwhelming physical weakness against which he constantly battles, so tensely does he command every . sorap of his shattered strength. The story of his accident, when he, a strong, active man, a [ vigorous walker, was flung from his bicycle, to receive lasting injury, is really the story of his public life, for it was in the following months when he lay prostrate on his back that he seriously took up the sthdy of economics, and laid the foundations of that expert knowledge which has stood him in such good stead ever since, which helped to place him on the executive of the Labour Party soon after he entered Parliament, and_ later led to his appoint-, ment as national chairman. Perhaps nothing gives a better idea of his position of authority iii these matters than the astounding fact—astounding as least to a journalist—that ..while he has been actively engaged in journalism for twenty years, and has contributed to practically every newspaper of importance in the Kingdom—with two notable exceptions—he lids never written or offered to write an unsolicited article. I doubt if any other journalist in tho country can match that record. But he has never had to do interviews. I wish he had.