PLOUGH TO PREMIER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 40, 10 November 1937, Page 5

PLOUGH TO PREMIER

Mr MacDonald's Career ' Mr James Ramsay MacDonuld was born in 1866 and was a sOn of Mr J. MacDonald, of Lossiemouth, Morayshire. He was educated at a board school and his home surroundings were cf the poorest. Biut for the fuco that the dominie of the board school marked him as a boy of unusual ability he would have had to work in the fields or go to sea. He was,- in fact, driving a plough when he was called back to act as pupil teacher. At eighteen, after having tried his hand at journalisni he went to London. There he workea a)s invoice clerk in a box factory, receiving 12/- a week. He continued studying, but his, career was changed by a serious illness which prevented him from taking a seholarship and he became seeretary to a Parliamentary candidate. " He had soon joined the Fabian Society hnd other Socialist grqaps and in 1894

joined the Independent Labour Party, m which he became prominent. Some foreign travel and several years of service on the London County Council eompleted his equipment and by 1900 he was marked as a coming man. In that year he was appointed" secretary of the Labour Eepresentati'on Committee and in 1906 won a se'at in the Commons for Labour. He became oue Of the whips of the new party and made his force felt so that in 1911 he became leader of tHe parly in .Parliament. The reputation he won as a speaker was supported by a series Of bookis. In 1911 he suffered a heavy blow. In 1896 he had married Miss Margaret Gladstone, daughter of a distingiiished physieist and nieeo of Lord Kelvin, and in 1911 sJie died leaving him with five young children. He hjtd visited India with her in 1909 and in 1912 he went there again as member of a Royal Commission. He protested against the role taken by Britain in the World War and his pacifism in that period brought social ostraeism. But he was concerned to keep the peace mind alive and to prevent a breach in the ranks of the Labour movement. As the war dragged on, more and more Labour supporters rallied to him, but in the khaki election of 1918' he lost his seat. He did not Teenter the House of Commons for' four years and by that time disillusion had spread and his propaganda helped to raise the strength of the Labour Party to 141 in the 1922 election. When at the end of 1923, another election raise d the strength of his party to 190 and gave it the chance of' government he did not hesitate. "The nation calls somebody to work," he said, and in 1924 he became the first Labour Prime Minister. The first Labour Prime Mipister was aiso the first Labour Minister of Foreign Affairs and his policy waa claimed to be a success. But 'lxis Ministry fell over a disputo which began over a non-prosecution of the editor of the Communist "Workers' Weekly," who was allegedly guilty of sedition. The Zinoviev Letter was discovered to sway the result and the Conservatives returned to power. But in 1929/ at the end of five years of office, the Conservatives were defeated and Mr MacDonald became Prime Minister for the second time. In the second year of his Government the financial crisis developed, he turned to the Conservatives and Liberals, went to the' country and won hn ovefwhelming victory whioh allowed him to continue as Prime Minister until 1935. The reeonfetruction of the Ministry which took place at that time gave him the post of Lord President of the Council. In 1936 he lost his soat, but was returned a little later for Scottish Universities. More than once there has been talk of him going to the House of Lords, but some commentators declared that there was family opposition to his taking a title.