New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-03-04

ocratic energies, and is looking for new con-
quests in the early future
The thirty Labor members organized as the
fourth party sit together in opposition, and a
score OF miners representatives and working
men can be counted among the advanced Radi-
calls. The majority have low crowned hats and
are carelessly dressed Their leader. Mr. Kerr
Hardie. wears a brown coat and flannel shirt
and there are half a dozen red neckties among
his followers. Few among them big limbed
and broad chested the faces are prematurely
DID, the hands are large and are in constant
motion Although many of them stoop and are
of slight stature. there at least two giants
among them One is Mr.. Hodge, the big framed
muscular member for the Gorton division of
Lancashire. who has been the chief recruiting
sergeant Of the Amalgamated Steel SHELTERS
Association in Manchester. and the other is Mr..
Ward, who was employed in his youth as a
NAVY on the ship canal there and the mill
tary railway between Suakim and Berber and
was trained in trade unions and labor fedora
tons for the responsibilities of public life They
have big voices and rough manners, and will
have to learn how to adapt themselves to their
new environment. Opposite them on the Liberal
benches are veterans who have commanded a
hearing in several Parliaments by their earnest
ness, sincerity and practical intelligence Among
them is sturdy. gray bearded Thomas Burt with
the Northumberland burr In his throat almost
as distinct as when he working in a coal
pit half century ago and he bends forward
and blinks through his clumsy eyeglasses he is
revealed as a self-educated workman, who has
become a student, a magazine writer and a
natural arbitrator in trade disputes Near him
is Mr.. Broadhurst. who has been in the Com
! mons for twenty-five years and speaks so fluent
ly and with so melodious voice that his audit
har 70 be1 hot ba
stonemason's son and hammered his way I'D
| from blacksmith's forge.
The rival leaders of the working nembers
without doubt are John Burns and Keir Hardie
| one on the front government bench and the
| other below the gangway in Opposition. They
| have been pitted against each other in trade
| union congresses. where one has stood for the
workaday issues of organized labor and the
| other for revolutionary action on sociaIistic
lines; and they seem destined to pull in opposite
| directions during the present session. MI Burns
! is under fifty. but looks older. strenuous have
| his labors been since he apprenticed TO a
| Millbank engineer, was turned adrift in West
| Africa in quest of adventures. and was locked
| up for infammatory oratory in Chaplain Com
mon and Trafalgar Square. He dislikes to be
| known as old fashioned Labor Liberal who
| has ceased to represent the new forces of trade
unionism, and consequently when he is on the
! PLATFORM at Battersea or in the Midlands he T.
| apt 10 make theatrical and rather violent dis
play Of uncompromising Radicalism: but In real
ity ne has sobered down with the silverine of
| hair and beard, and is jealous of his dignity ss
the first workingman of Cabinet rank Mr.
| Hardie. like Honest John" is a Scotsrrar
equally tenacious and hard headed, but essen
| TALLY dreamer who is convinced that working
men will never receive their heritage of ahso-
lutte political party freedom until they break
| away from oil regular lines OF organization and
become socialists. On the opening day OF par
lament when he spoke the leader of ths
Labor group. he was not heard TO ADVANTAGE
| since he was embarrassed by a sense Of saIr
notwithstanding new IN so irresponsible an
agitator. He Is. however, most effectfve rvr,.s
ana debater. with a good literary style, trench
| ant and incisive. His eccentricities Of pronun
| citation and dress accumulated for theatrical
| effect, and while he no longer marches 10 West
| minister behind brass band. he has no faith a.,
humdrum politics Ike Mr.. Burns's practice,
knowledge OF local government He wants SEN