MR PHILIP SNOWDEN, M.P.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 41, 5 October 1914, Page 7

MR PHILIP SNOWDEN, M.P.

SOCIALIST AMD LECTURER. In ‘‘Prophets, Priests, ami Kings.” i,y .\. (hirdiner, it .lino word picjture is pointed of Philip Snowden. I Describing Ins entrance into I :te Blackburn constituency, for 'JO year* [regarded ns a Conservative stronghold. the writer says; "Suddenly there appeared on the scone a sti.i niter out of the West Riding. So techie he seemed that he moved the toe to pity more than anger. He came limping into the lists on foota pallid, hatchet-faced young man. small of stature and leaning heavdy on a stick, one foot dragging helpless!v along the ground. His fare was scored with the brand of suffering and hitter thought. He had. as" the result of n bicycle accident, lain twelve months motionless upon l,i s bed. and had stolen back to the wavs of men a maimed and ■ stricken wreck. . . There was no one to receive him save a few, eager wmkingmen. . . That election will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. . • Philip Snowden's name was on every lip, bis sayings ran like rumor through weaving si eas and the street. . . He lougnt the battle absolutely single-handed and he bought it with a dignity of spirit rare in politics. “Snowden is an Atheist” was chalked on n bu.vlrco walls. He ignored the slander “Snowden was dismissed from iV Excise” passed from lip to bo. Again he was silent. He was urged to tell the real facts which w re entirely honorable to him. “Nolle said, “I have resolved to fig hi this battle on politics and not rn personalities, and from that I wdl not move.” I take Philip Snowden to be totypical Socialist in Parliament. . Other men of his party will yield a little to gain much. He yields nothing. He is the steady, relentless foe of society as it is constituted. He will have no half measures, no ooqnettings, with the enemy. His theory or nothing. He owes his seat largely to Liberal votes; but he makes no sign of recognition or thanks,. Liberalism is to him as Toryism. Nay it is more detestable than Toryism, because it is more dangerous to his aims. He stands for revolution—a bloodless revolution, but still a revolution. Toryism, with, its reaction ary impulses, paves the way to revolution : Liberalism, with its moderate reforms, defeats revolution. Hence Toryism is to some extent a friend, while Liberalism, blunting the edge of popular demand, is the real enemy And so, when Mr Snowden goes about the country, it is Liberalism which is the target of his bitterest attacks. He will* take nothing from it wit! thanks, for its best gifts are only intended to make existing society tolerable, and he wants it to be intolerable.” After describing how many men oil entering Parliament, become m*sro o less flaccid in so far as their rigu principles are concerned, the antho proceeds; “Philip Snowden stanch aloof from all this tendency—lonely unyielding, consumed with one pas sinuate purpose. . . Ho is the stn p of which revolutions arc made. . If ever there were revolution in thi country, 1 do not know who woul. be its Danton, but I should have n< doubt as to who would be its Robe spiorre—not the Robespierre of tin September massacres, but the Robe spierro of the concentrated and re 'noiseless purpose. . . One thin, is certain : he will do nothing to con nil into the Liberals. He must be taken on bis own terms if taken at all. Compromise! is not in him. He is one of those rare men who liv for an idea, and who have neither air nor ambition outside it. He woul wade through slaughter to achieve it; he would go to the stake rathe; than surrender the least fragment o' it. . . For if Socialism ever cam to power—and that depends largel upon whether Liberalism is a suffic iently effective instrument of reforn to keep it at bay—it will be Philij Snowden who will he largely the ai chitect of the new social structure.’