ominates on local councils, and the influence of trade unions prevails
in these assemblies wherever a strong Labour party exists. Mr. Joseph
Chamberlain began his public career on the Birmingham Town Council, and his
municipal services earned for him the enthusiastic support of Birmingham
for all his later political ventures. It would be difficult to mention the
name of a great statesman who laid the foundations of his fame in rural
local government.

As in local government, so in the Imperial Parliament. Rural England sends
no Labour member to the House of Commons. Only in very exceptional cases
has a tenant farmer been elected. It is the social labour of the mine and
the mill that has produced the Labour member of Parliament.

Mr. Joseph Arch made a valiant attempt to organise the agricultural
labourers of England, and from 1880 to 1890 a rural labourers' union, with
some thousands of members, was in existence. For a time this secured a rise
in wages, and when Mr. Arch was in Parliament, as a Liberal M.P.
(1885-1895), the rural labourer hoped for lasting improvement in the
conditions of life. But the Union fell to pieces, and Mr. Arch was not
strong enough single-handed to force the claims of his constituents on the
House of Commons.

THE WORKMAN IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

To-day there are more than forty workmen in the House of Commons, and the
great majority of these have served an apprenticeship in municipal and
trade union offices. Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lancashire,
Stafford, South Wales, Glasgow, Dundee, Leicester, Norwich and London, all
have their elected Labour members in Parliament, and a marked preference is
shown for the man who has proved his honesty and capacity in the
municipality, or as the leader of his trade union. All the miners'
representatives are tried and experienced men. Mr. G.N. Barnes, M.P., was
for ten years the general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of
Engineers. Mr. Clynes, M.P., was elected to the office of district
secretary of the Gas Workers' and General Labourers' Union twenty years
ago; Mr. Will Thorne, M.P., has been general secretary of the same union
since 1889, and has sat on the West Ham Corporation for more than sixteen
years. Mr. George Lansbury, M.P., and Mr. Will Crooks, M.P., are well known
for their work on the London County Council and on their local borough
council and board of guardians. Similarly with other Labour members of
Parliament. Their lives ar