THE INDEPENDENT LABOUR PARTY. F OR once we agree heartily with
Lord Rosebery that the Independent Labour party would do not only much better for the nation, but also much better for itself, if it united itself heartily with one of the great parties,— presumably, of course, with the Gladstonians,—and endeavoured to attain its own ends mainly by exerting all the influence it could wield over the policy and consti- tution of that party, instead of by copying the destructive example of the old Pa,rnellites, and, voting with either party which would enable it to inspire the most fear or to purchase the most influence. Mr. Keir Hardie does not approve of that counsel, and regards it as the mere self-interested device of an adroit electioneerer. But he does not see, as onlookers see, how much a party may lose by the pure selfishness of its tactics, how seriously it corrupts the spirit of the whole nation to which it belongs, and so manages to decompose its own structure, and to spread anarchy among its own members. If Mr. Keir Hardie is impressed, as he evidently is, by the success of Mr. Parnell in getting Mr. Gladstone to rush into his arms, he should consider at the same time how much Mr. Gladstone's own impulsive and enthusiastic nature,—which inspired his followers with a. well-justified belief in his entire sincerity,— had to do with that remarkable achievement, and how curiously also it has hitherto failed of success. With one hand, no doubt, Mr. Parnell lifted his own small party to the highest point of influence that it had ever gained in the affairs of the United Kingdom, but with the other hand he undermined the prestige and broke the influence of the great party which he only half-converted, and so succeeded only in achieving the fate of Tantalus,—in getting near enough to the fruits he coveted to feel doubly the bitter disappointment of never tasting what was so near his lips. Mr. Parnell succeeded in failing with eclat, and in setting an example of selfish and disloyal strategy throughout the party which he die- organised. He succeeded, as the Nihilists in Russia have succeeded, in spreading dismay without conquering for the cause for which he professed to fight. And yet he had all the advantage which Mr. Gladstone's mobile and ardent political impulses gave him in winning an ally who was as sincere as he was short-sighted when he changed sides with a persuasive earnestness and dramatic generosity that carried with him what no other statesman of our day could have carried with him under like circum- stances. It is not every statesman who could have shut his eyes so firmly to Mr. Parnell's cynicism, while he adopted with eager enthusiasm Mr. Parnell's advice.
And the Independent Labour party are, as Lord Rose- bery very justly pointed out in his speech at Stratford yesterday week, in a very different position from the Irish party. They can by no possibility persuade any one, not even a second Mr. Gladstone, that they have a nation at their back. The Irish party had that great advantage with which to bewilder and dazzle the eyes of those who are always disposed to sympathise with an oppressed race. Mr. Parnell's famous cohort had all the show of Ireland's wrongs behind it, all the prestige of a flag of their own, and that a. flag which represented the sentiment of a suffering race. The Independent Labour party have no such advantage. They represent at most a great body of hard-working men, who have a certain number of grievances of their own,—a body which may be justi- fied, or may be quite unjustified, in proposing the specific remedies for which they argue. They never can persuade anybody with the slightest vestige of reason, that they are more than a class, and a class not by any means agreed amongst themselves even as to their own true interests. They are not agreed as to the compulsory limita- tion of the hours of labour. They are not agreed as to the question of female labour. They are not wholly agreed even on the subject of the "living-wage." Now, it seems to us a very great mistake for a class to set itself against the whole of the rest of the nation, even though it were agreed within itself, which in this case it is not. It should be able to convert the party to which it belongs, if it is to carry the people with it, and not rather to sow bitter internal discords with every victory it wins. Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright convinced not only the Liberal party, but a considerable proportion of the Conservative party also of the wisdom of Free-trade, before they carried their point. Mr. Bright convinced not only the whole Liberal party, but a considerable and influential portion of the Conservative party too, of the wisdom of the extension of the suffrage to the artisans, before he carried his point. And, much to our sorrow, the friends of secret voting con- vinced almost the whole Liberal party of the wisdom of that sorry expedient before the Ballot Bill was carried. But how many of the average Gladstonians are convinced of the wisdom of a compulsory Eight-Hours Bill? Not even so strong a Radical as Mr. John Morley. How many of the average Gladstonians are convinced of the wisdom of driving the consumers of English coal to foreign coal-mines rather than abate in any degree the claims of miners' labour to the highest rates of payment to which they think themselves entitled ? We venture to say that these are matters on which not only the whole Glad- stonian party is divided, but the English miners them- selves are greatly, divided. And nothing can be, in our view, more utterly impolitic than for the Independent Labour party to break the Gladstonian party to pieces on. questions of this kind, rather than leave them to ripen till they can unite the great majority of the Liberal party in relation to them, as the great majority of the Liberal party have hitherto been united on every question which that party has carried to a triumphant conclusion. So far from Mr. Parnell having set any example of successful organisation, he has, we believe, given the various sections and cliques a very impressive warning against making, or attempting to make, government impossible till they have forced their own particular nostrum on the House of Commons. In spite of the superficial success which Mr. Parnell obtained, he not only did not succeed in carrying his point, but did, we think, succeed in rendering it more hopeless than ever that the Liberal party should ever adopt it. He ruined the credit of the Liberal party with the nation as the great engine for the reform of the Constitution with- out even first getting the benefit of its original strength for the purpose of establishing an Irish Parliament on College Green. But Mr. Keir Hardie will not for many years have anything like the strength which Mr. Parnell had for establishing an independent party, as Lord Rosebery pointed out. And he will have, we are sure, a great deal more difficulty in drilling and organising his party for separate action than Mr. Parnell had. The labourers are, after all, Englishmen, with a good deal more pride in the national life of England than Mr. Keir Hardie appears to feel. And whenever they feel,—as they will often feel, —that they are endangering or paralysing the efficiency of the Liberal party by playing their separate game, Mr. Keir Hardie will often find them in revolt and quite unwilling to accept his word of command.
We need not say that we are quite impartial in offer- ing this support to Lord Rosebery. So far as immediate issues are affected by the Labour party, it is not we who should counsel them to stick by Sir William Harcourt, and subordinate their own ends to the ends of the larger organisation to which they should belong. We do not wish to see Lord Rosebery's Government helped out of its various difficulties, or to postpone the hour of the Unionist triumph for• any reason but one ;—but that reason is to our minds all-important, namely, to prevent the failure of the Parliamentary form of our government, and to postpone indefinitely, if possible, the day when the temporary alliance of political groups which have no common purpose except to turn out of office a Government which all of them dislike, shall checkmate the only Administration which "divides us the least." We are convinced that the selfish isolation of various political groups for their various individual ends, strikes at the very root of true national life ; and we dread so profoundly this undermining of the only true uses of party govern- ment that we would far rather see Lord Rosebery in full command of all the various elements of his own party, than obtain a premature and too easy victory through the mutiny of any of the different sections of his party, instead of by winning a pitched battle against the united forces who have declared for a policy of self-railed disintegration.
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