Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-02
Continued From First Page)

parish council His faithful henchmen
got out the vote and put him on the
council, and little later they put him
on the school board.
He became honorary clerk to the
little parish council, and he will tell
you, with his wrinkled smile-which is
not untouched with pride at the recol-
lection of this particular achievement
that against strong opposition he got
the houses of the village numbered
Figuresl order! They are his passion.
He was 32-half-way to the Snowden
of Whitehall and The Hague.
Snowden a Newspaper Writer.
He and his mother moved. They
went to a town where Philip was elect
ed to the town council. He wrote ar
ticles for the papers and reviews and
pamphlets. He also made contact with
the wild young pioneers of Socialism
and the first labor organizers, all the
men who were seeking to direct the new
labor unions into the channel of con-
Scious political action which led to
Parliament and voice in the making
of laws. Invaluable he was to them,
the only trained man of figures among
group of passionate rhetoricians
From the first he was the preordained
first Labor chancellor of the exchequer.
No one else had chance against the
clenched and concentrated accountant
from the weaver'S cottage and the excise
Office.
1t was as temperance advocate that
he first attracted national notice There
was great newspaper controversy and
public debate on the liquor question.
public opinion being stirred by the
discovery that the nation was spending
single item in its annual national bill
What caused these oceans of beer and
whisky to be consumed? Poverty and a
bad social environment, declared Snow
den. He said that the masses of the
poor drink in order to escape and to
forget the bitter hopelessness of their
daily lives.
It YVES new idea, the propertied and
comfortable classes having always be-
iieved and asserted that the masses
drank to excess simply becaue they were
born wicked and thriftless. Snowden's
announcement sounded dangerous. 1t
even sounded revolutionary. 1t fright
ened the liquor interests-then, as now.
solidly represented in Parliament and
entrenched in the Tory party machine
with its underlying menace of political
action to come.
ArOuseS Fierce Opposition.
Snowden was abused, bounded, sub
jected to endless calumnies and mis-
representation. The whole Socialist
movement in which he was becoming
an outstanding figure was declared to
be atheistic, and the men directing it
to be out to line their own pockets.
Snowden learned to take brickbatS with
an indestructible grim grin. He also
began to cherish Parliamentary ambi-
IN nd lNV.aff
but he never lost an underlying fierce
ness of temper, and his dagger of
tongue was always ready to whip out of
its sheath at challenge, a breath Of
opposition.
His mother was his stanch supporter
in those days. He lived with her,
talked to her, was inspired by her. A
sturdy old lady. She saw her son, now
we'll known local politician, journalist
and Socialist lecturer, made chairman
of the young independent labor party.
She saw him three years later, now AZ
and year married, returned to Parlia-
ment by the electorate of big cotton
town of the north.
She was past 80 when she sat in the
gallery of the House of Commons and
heard her son make a speech from the
ninety-second year, two years before
Philip became a privy councillor and
Right Honorable" first Labor chancel-
lor of the EXchequer and a great man
in the land.
Her voice, however, survives Moor
man, a famous Yorkshire dialect poet,
was so struck by the old lady's person.
atty and characteristic Yorkshire dia-
lect that he got her to make a record,
and this wax disk is now preserved for
students of language to hear centuries
hence.
Good Wishes Sent in Dialect.
Snowden himself, talking today with
a north coun ry burr. has not forgotten
the dialect he learned at his mothers
knee When an old friend of his, Ben
Turner, veteran trade union leader
and minister of mines in the present
government, was having stiff fight in
the election of 1924. Snowden sent him
good wishes in this bit of dialect verse:
Tha'rt bit of poet thi'sel, Ben.
Soa Aw think AVN send thi rhyme.
Just to wish thi' luck and to say ha'
much
I want thee to win this time.
For tha' been tried and tested Parlia-
ment,
And tha's proved a reight good chap:
Tha's allus spoken and voated for them
AS were not in LuXurys lap.
We want noa taxes on food. lad.
Nor on clothes nor shoes nor light;
Tha's better plan ner that, Ben,
For keeping t home fires bright.
Soa Aw hoap at Bailey and Morley
An Ossctt an all the rest,
Wen stick to Ben and return him,
For he's one of our very best.
Snowden lived with his mother until
he married at the age of Al His wife
has been his comrade and aide since
he became q national politician She
wards OFF unnecessary callers, fills his
I cigarette case, puts flowers on his little
desk, decides his menus-he is a frugal
eater-diScusses his important corre-
! spondence and problems, carries his Sec
ond stick and lends him her arm and
| plays the nurse by day and night She
has a strong mind, Arm mouth, a
! watchful eye, ready tongue and keen
/ awaroness Of her husbands position in
| the party
Wife Settles Controversy.
When there was some difference of
! Spinion as to Whe her SnoWden should
! occupy No. IL Downing Street, the Of
! fetal residence of the chancellor of the
cXchequer at the time of the first Mac
| donald ministry, or another cabinet
minister should occupy the house so as
| to be in close touch with the big chief
in No. 10, Mrs. Snowden told reporters
in no uncertain tone that her husband
was the correct tenant for No. IL and
that no one else was going into resi-
dence there. And that was that