The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-09-09 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1871.

REPRESENTATION OF LABOUR.

That labour should be represented in PJrlia-
meta is generally admitted in theory, bat is cer-
tainly not carried out in practice. The labour
class is the largest class itt the country, and to
whatever extent it may be represented indirectly
it has no direct representation. There is no-
thing, however, in our laws or constitution to
Prohibit representatives of labour being elected
and taking their seats among their richer fellow
subjects. Property gulifieation has long been
abolished, and although the necessary expenses
of candidates are very heavy, it cannot be COll-
- as one law for the rich and another for
the poor, seeing that under any regulations
whatever, large expenses must he incurred. I:
luny he shrewdly suspected that the real re son
why have not labour representatives in Parlia-
ment is because the wage class, as Mr. Bright
c dls them, have no tarticular affection for a re-
prrsilitative of their own order. Be this us it
may, it is worthy of remark, that notwithstand-
ing the efforts of our Labour Leagues and the
excited meetings here and there throughout the
country, no direct representative of labour has
yet passed through the portals of the House of
Commons.

Two meetings of these Leagues have just been
held, the one in Birminghani and the other in
London. The proceedings at these meetings
appear to us to show considerable weakness on
the part of ti, botie... At the 13irixiingham
• L ihour lt a resolution %VW,
p.Oo.oci t • a woveinent,
• .f the town, for

the porio,, • f
NOW, :•1 abandoning the oi'•
ginal purl '.o', tipmglk a is prab
able ,z, 11.•• ni aini.4 at tilt! Tl',.)
: •• ! • ..••
••,• WIL3
. • • • :• S Way to tske ptt

lioUrt3a da.

t

laCi. Nvorth nut,,
too, as incekotaily showing how powerless ore
toese Leag.,.:tn effect th.•ir ostenslble objects.
The mart, • ,c I,lbour Representation

I...,agne in L.
rtat I that 1.11.

.11ill•

.1. 1, ..,11nin,

revie. ing the 140,, , c arto, ourlng
its last session spoke in severe terms of tile
nothingness of the legislative results achieved.

Now, if ate House of Commons were to do so
foolish a thing as to appoint a committee to in-
quire into the sayings and doings of this self-
same league, what would be the result? Why.
that the COMlllissioners would necessarily speak
in severe terms of the nothingness of the results
achieved by the League. Without any prejudice
against this demonstrative body, and fully ad-
nutting the justice of their platform, as the cunt
phrase is, we really eatmlbt see that they have
&me anything. They have talked by the yard ;
they have had meetings and conferences without
number; the mountain has been in labour, and
1 there has not been produced even that prover-
bial ridiculous mouse. In plain blueish they
. have not enabled one working lean to enter Par-
liament, and it is rather doubtful whether they
have not done much to keep working men out
of it. The plain truth is that anything worth
. having is worth paying for, and if wgrking men
want representatives of their own class they
must pay for them. We have numbers of work-
ing men, though not actually so called, in the
Hence of Commons already, and we have many
members who are really us staunch friends and
advocates of tile working classes as any artisan
or mechanic could be. Ilia we have no hm,i.fide
working-man representatives, simply because no
arrangement has been made between constitu-
ents and elector of this class to pay his election
expenses and give hint an annuity during his
term of representation. This is the real gist of
the matter, though it is usually studiously over-
looked.

There are two other features of the London
meeting which are worth notice. It is intended
that a conhrsuce should be held to consider the
existing unsatisfactory relations of the working
people with the liberal party. Here, indeed, is
ample scope and verge enough for any amount
of talk, but the action that will spring front it
will probably be infinitesimal. We cannot, con-
ceive, indeed, what good can conic of a confer-
ence on so loose. vague, and shadowy a topic as
this. To mention nothing else, the League
would find it very dillicult to define who and
whet are working people, and who and what are
the Liberal party. The other matter to which
we would briefly refer is the proposal to organise
an independent third party in the State, for the
purpose of securing national progress and the
practical embodiment in law of those measures
upon the proper settlement of which it was in-
sisted that the happiness and permanent well-
being of the working classes of this country
depends. Hero again, all is vague and indefi-
nite, and this proposition, as well as much else
in the proceedings of the League, show that they
are drifting away front their original purpose,
and wasting their strength in generalities. We
would recommend these labour leagues to adopt
the French proverb, " to return to their noon-
tons." Let them concentrate their efforts in en-
deavouring to work out their original pro-
gramme. Here is a legitimate purpose, with a
praiseworthy end in view. A few genuine work-
ing men in Parliament would not go far to leaven
the whole lump, but they would be legitimate
representatives of the largest class in the coun-
try, and as such would command respect, and
would speak with special authority on various
important questions bearing on the relations of
capital and labour. Capital is certainly over-
represented in the House of Commons, and
labour is not unreasonable in demanding a direct
voice in the legislature.