The labor standard., 1919-10-01
KNIGHT IN 1908
 IS NOW PAUPER
PitifuI Ending of Career of Sir Luke White, Once Member
 of Parliament.
BANKRUPT AND A WRECK
Some of His Poor Constituents Lost Their All by Intrusting It to Him -War Makes Financial
 Distress Known.

London-From a position of afflu ence, popularity and public service which won him a seat in parliament and a knighthood, Sir Luke White is ending his days as the inmate of a workhousc infirmary in Driffield. Clev- CT enough to rise from poverty to noted career, injudicious investments brought him low, and at the height of his political power he was forced to confess himself bankrupt. He carried down with him numerous trusting con- stituents, and his liabilities of $135,- GOO included $95,OOO in loans from poor people who had con6ded their all to him. The shame of having thus wrecked the savings of those who be- lieved in him completely unnerved him. Now he is dependent on public charity, his spirit utterly crushed, and he is one of the most pitiful figures in the north of England.
 Began as Office Boy.
 Born in Deighton, near York, in 1S45, he was an office boy at fifteen for a solicitor, who paid him about 90 cents a week. After eight years in
  income, he became managing clerk for another solicitor in Driffield. In an other six years he was admitted to the bar as solicitor, and in the same year he succeeded to the practice of his employer, who had died.
 He speedily became known as a local preacher and speaker for large district, and he was highly popular and successful. For years he was chairman of the local board, and then of the urban district council. Then he went to the East Riding county coun- cil. In 1896 he was appointed one of the coroners for East Riding. He act ed as election agent for Sir Angus Holden, Liberal member of parlia- ment for the Buckrose division, and when Sir Angus died in 1900 White was chosen as his successor. In 1908 he was knighted.
 He continued to divide his time be. tween his attendance at Westminstei and his business in Yorkshire, but as he gave more time to his parliament ary duties than to his private affairs, his practice suffered. The war brought out IAC LdAL LA0I AC wa AA AAoASAeAA distress, and last fall he resigned his seat and filed petition in bankruptcy. It appeared in the bankruptcy pro- ceedfngs that some of his poor con- stituents had confided their money to him to put into war loans.
 Popular For Years.
 Friends provided for him for awhile in a sanitarium near Scar borough. When that fund was ex- hausted he was removed to the work house infirmary, which almost adjOins the court in which he formerly prac- tised. His tragic misfortune caused great sensation. in East Yorkshire; where for years he had been so we'll known and liked that in the town of Bridlington particularly his photo graph hung on the walls of every other house. He had been eminently a poor mans lawyer.
 His fate is now brought afresh to public notice by an action against Herbert Brown, deputy coroner for the East Riding of Yorkshire, who is charged, jointly with Sir Luke, with having appropriated to the personal use of Sir Luke in 1907 $1 ,OOO intrust- ed to them by Witham Hatfield for in- vestment. Sir Luke escapes arraign- ment owing to his physical and ner- vous collapse.