The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-06-02

r. p. O'Connor, NJ. p, in a letter
to the Chicago Daily Record Herald,
dated London, May 10, has the fol-
lowing to say in reference to the new
labor marty as a factor in British
politics.:
In their short sack coats, their
bowler hats. their flannel or rough
cotton shirts, the members of the new
labor party stand apart from the gen.
eral body of the members of the house
of commons, even in mere eXternals.
There is also a certain common mark
which reveals the hard road through
which they have travelled between
their cradle and the floor of the palace
at Westminster, where kings nave
dwelt and aristocrats for the most
part have made the laws. Many OF
them are somewhat understood; all of
them have rough hewn faces; one or
two look almost invalid. There is
scarcely one of them that has the full
ruddy complexion of easy circum-
stances and prosperous struggle.
= DOUBTLESS there are other groups Of
men in the house in whom, if they
collected together, one might detect
almost the same wounds aud scars of
the hard battles for existence; but in
their case much is softened by the
broadcloth, the flowing frock coat, the
dazzling white of linen collars and
cuffs, and all skillful conmingling of
black and white which are as charac-
teristic of the well-dressed and we'll
groomed Englishman who finds himself
in Westminster as the tailor-made
dress of their travelling women folk
But none of the physical marks of
struggle and sufferings is concealed
by such aids in the case of the labor
members; they are, OH the contrary,
accentuated by the almost ostent1tious
wearing of the clothes that one as
sociates with the humble drudgery of
the day laborer.
Nor is this the only way in which
the new group is isolated and attracts
attention. Up to this parliament the
labor member has been, to all intents
and purposes, as docile and regular a
member of the liberal party as the
most bourgeois shopkeeper or the
most successful trader who are the
center of the party in England. Usual
ly these labor members have been ac-
cepted by the organization which repre-
scented the liberal party as a whole.
These organizations, it is no secret,
are nearly always financed by the mid
die class liberal. UP to a short time
ago the workingmen of England, with
all they had learned and even taught
to the proletariat parties in other
countries. had not learned the art of
subscribing for their own movements.
And it was left, therefore, to small
groups of wealthy middle class lib
erals to keep going those organizations
which do the political work between
elections and naturally expect to make
the political nominations accordingly
when the elections come round
1t was necessary result of this that
where the labor member was chosen
by the liberal organization, he should
be of type that could be relied on
to support the liberal party. The old
time labor member, then, was quite a
different being from the members Of
the new independent labor party. The
best type of that ld-time labor men,
ber now living is Thomas Burt-or
to give him the title he now has, the
Right Hon. Thomas Burt When a
politician is approaching the close of
his career, and when no office can be
given to him, he is made a member of
the privy council of the sovereign
which means little else than that he is
entitled to be called right honorable.
Right Honorable Thomas Burt start
ed life as a boy in the coal mines Of
Northumberland, but, being one of the
natural born students of the world he
was not many years in the mines be-
fore he attracted attention by his
scholarship, his power Of plain, and
occasionally eloquent, speech, and he
became power among his fellows and
one of their leading officials. Shy,