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FROM WORKHOUSETO WESTMINSTERThe Life Story of Will Crooks, M.P. By George Haw
FROM WORKHOUSETO WESTMINSTERThe Life Story of Will Crooks, M.P. By George Haw
WITH INTRODUCTION BY G. K. CHESTERTON FOUR FULL-PAGE PLATES CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne MCMIX First Edition February 1907 . Reprinted March, June and August 1908 . January and November 1909. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO Mrs. WILL CROOKS THIS SLIGHT RECORD OF HER HUSBAND'S CAREER IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR...
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PREFACE
PREFACE
This record of the career of a man whom I have known intimately in his public and private life for over a dozen years can claim at least one distinction. It is the first biography of a working man who has deliberately chosen to remain in the ranks of working men as well as in their service. From the day in the early 'nineties when he was called upon to decide between a prospective partnership in a prosperous business and the hard, joyless life of a Labour representative, with poverty for his lot
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Will Crooks, as I know him in his own house at Poplar and in that other House at Westminster, always seems to me to be something far greater than a Labour Member of Parliament. He stands out as the supreme type of the English working classes, who have chosen him as one of their representatives. Representative government, a mystical institution, is said to have originated in some of the monastic orders. In any case, it is evident that the character of it is symbolic, and that it is subject to
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CHAPTER I EARLIEST YEARS IN A ONE-ROOMED HOME
CHAPTER I EARLIEST YEARS IN A ONE-ROOMED HOME
Difference between "Will" and "William"—Early Memories—Crying for Bread—An Aspersion Resented—A Prophecy that has been Fulfilled—Will earns his First Half-Sovereign. Will Crooks! In the little one-roomed home where he was born at No. 2, Shirbutt Street, down by the Docks at Poplar, it was the earnest desire of all whom it concerned that he should be known to the world as William Crooks. The desire found practical expression in the register of Trinity Congregational Church in East India Dock Road
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CHAPTER II AS A CHILD IN THE WORKHOUSE
CHAPTER II AS A CHILD IN THE WORKHOUSE
With an Idiot Boy in the Workhouse—Life in the Poor Law School at Sutton—At Home Once More—A Fashionable Knock for the Casual Ward—A Bread Riot. But we must go back a few years—to the evil day when, the father being a cripple, the family have to enter the workhouse. The mother had before this been forced to ask for parish relief. For a time the Guardians paid her two or three shillings a week and gave her a little bread. Suddenly these scanty supplies were stopped. The mother was told to come be
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CHAPTER III SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS
CHAPTER III SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS
The School of Life—Borrowed Magazines—Reading Dickens—Crooks's Humour and Story-Telling Faculty—Discovering Scott—Declaiming Shakespeare—Books that influenced him. Little education of the ordinary kind came into Will's life as a lad. We have seen that he turned out before five o'clock every morning at eight years of age to take milk round for a wage of sixpence a week. Soon after coming out of the workhouse he got a job as errand boy at a grocer's at two shillings a week. At eleven he was in a b
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CHAPTER IV ROUND THE HAUNTS OF HIS BOYHOOD
CHAPTER IV ROUND THE HAUNTS OF HIS BOYHOOD
Proud of his Birthplace—Famous Residents at Blackwall—Memories of Nelson's Flagship—Stealing a Body from a Gibbet—A Waterman who Remembered Dickens. Of many interesting days spent with Crooks in Poplar, one stands out as the day on which he showed me some of the haunts of his boyhood. Poplar is always picturesque with the glimpses it gives of ships' masts rising out of the Docks above the roofs of houses. With Crooks as guide, this rambling district of Dockland, foolishly imagined by many people
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CHAPTER V IN TRAINING FOR A CRAFTSMAN
CHAPTER V IN TRAINING FOR A CRAFTSMAN
Three years in a Smithy—Provoking a Carman—Apprenticeship—Winning a Nickname—Activity of an Idle Apprentice—"Not Dead, but Drunk"—A Boisterous Celebration—The Workman's Pride in His Work. The three years in the blacksmith's shop in Limehouse Causeway, that commenced at the age of eleven after the errand-boy period, were years of hard work and long hours. The lad's working day began at six in the morning and often did not close until eight at night. Working overtime meant ten and twelve midnight
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CHAPTER VI TRAMPING THE COUNTRY FOR WORK
CHAPTER VI TRAMPING THE COUNTRY FOR WORK
Marriage—Dismissed as an Agitator—Home broken up—"On the Road"—Timely Help at Burton—Finding Work at Liverpool—Bereavement—Back in London—A Second Tramp to Liverpool—Feelings of an "Out-of-Work." On a grey morning in the December of 1871 two young people came out of St. Thomas's Church, Bethnal Green, man and wife. Both were only nineteen years of age. The husband was Will Crooks; his wife the daughter of an East London shipwright named South. They set up their home in Poplar, near the coopering
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CHAPTER VII ONE OF LONDON'S UNEMPLOYED
CHAPTER VII ONE OF LONDON'S UNEMPLOYED
A Casual Labourer at the Docks—A Typical Day's Tramping for Work in London—Demoralising Effects of being Out of a Job—Emptying the Cupboard for a Starving Family—Work found at last—Doing the "Railway Tavern" a Bad Turn. In Liverpool again the prospect was not what he had been led to believe. An odd job here and an odd job there still left him in want. At last, in response to the earnest entreaties of his wife, whom nothing could persuade to revisit Liverpool, he returned to take his chance again
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CHAPTER VIII THE COLLEGE AT THE DOCK GATES
CHAPTER VIII THE COLLEGE AT THE DOCK GATES
Commending himself to his Employers—"Crooks's College"—His Style of Teaching—Specimens of his Humour—Admonitions against Drink and Betting. With regular work well assured, Crooks was able to give more time and study to public affairs and to the Labour Movement. For an unbroken period of ten years he held a good position in a large coopering establishment in East London, where he was held in high esteem by men and masters alike, the latter more than once intimating to him they would make it worth
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CHAPTER IX THE COLLEGE AT THE DOCK GATES
CHAPTER IX THE COLLEGE AT THE DOCK GATES
The Dock Strike of 1889—"Our Dock Strike Baby"—At the Point of Death—Discouraging a Missioner—Before a House of Lords Committee—Entrance upon Public Life—A Widower with Six Children—Second Marriage. The great Dock Strike of 1889 nearly brought Crooks to his grave. Much of the brunt and burden of that famous struggle fell upon his shoulders. Months before, he had prepared the way by his Dock Gate meetings. When at last the disorganised bands of dock and river-side labourers startled the industria
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CHAPTER X A LABOUR MEMBER'S WAGES
CHAPTER X A LABOUR MEMBER'S WAGES
The Will Crooks Wages Fund formed—The Poplar Labour League—Crooks's Election to the London County Council—Friends outside the Labour Movement—Money no Substitute for Personal Service—Refusing highly-paid Posts—Offer of a House rent-free for Life declined—Not Risen from the Ranks. How came it that a working man like Crooks was able to give his whole time to public work? It was simply because his fellow workmen wished it. They went to him in deputation in the early 'nineties, and said to him in ef
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CHAPTER XI ON THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL
CHAPTER XI ON THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL
The Labour Bench at the L.C.C.—Its First Party Meeting—The Programme—Crooks's First Speech in the County Hall—The Trade Union Wages Principle Adopted—One of the Master-builders of the New London—Retrospect—Chairman of the Public Control Committee—Keeping an Eye on the Coal Sack—The End of Baby-farming in London. When Crooks entered the London County Council in 1892 he was a stranger to almost all outside the little circle of Labour men sent up from other divisions. As a pioneer in Labour represe
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CHAPTER XII TWO OF HIS MONUMENTS
CHAPTER XII TWO OF HIS MONUMENTS
Testimony from Sir John McDougall and Lord Welby—Declining the Vice-chairmanship of the L.C.C.—How Crooks Lost His Overcoat—Work on the Technical Education Board—The Blackwall Tunnel—Chairman of the Bridges Committee. From the first, Crooks has shared the representation of Poplar on the London County Council with Sir John McDougall. The retired merchant was at the top of the poll in 1892, while the Labour man found himself elected as the second member with a thousand majority over the two Modera
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CHAPTER XIII THE TASK OF HIS LIFE BEGINS
CHAPTER XIII THE TASK OF HIS LIFE BEGINS
Elected to the Poplar Board of Guardians—Bumbledom in Power—Prison preferred to Workhouse—Poverty treated like Crime. Six months after his return to the London County Council, Poplar elected Crooks to the Board of Guardians. When he took his seat as a member in the very Board-room where thirty years before he clung timorously to his mother's skirt he knew that the task of his life had begun. He and his friend George Lansbury were elected together—the only Labour men on a Board of twenty-four. Th
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CHAPTER XIV THE MAN WHO FED THE POOR
CHAPTER XIV THE MAN WHO FED THE POOR
Chairman of the Poplar Board of Guardians—Bumbledom Dethroned—Paupers' Garb Abolished—Two Presidents of the Local Government Board Approve Crooks's Policy. This, then, was the state of the workhouse when Crooks went on the Board. It was soon evident that a strong man had arrived. He whom some of the Guardians at first described as "a ranter from the Labour mob" soon proved himself the best administrator among them. Within five years of his election he was made Chairman. The Board insisted on his
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CHAPTER XV TURNING WORKHOUSE CHILDREN INTO USEFUL CITIZENS
CHAPTER XV TURNING WORKHOUSE CHILDREN INTO USEFUL CITIZENS
A Home for Little "Ins-and-Outs"—Technical Education for Workhouse Children—A Good Report for the Forest Gate Schools—Trophies won by Scholars—The Children's Pat-a-Cakes. After he had fed the old people and clothed the old people, and in other ways brought into their darkened lives a little good cheer, Crooks turned his care upon the workhouse children. The Guardians' school at Forest Gate lay four miles from the Union buildings at Poplar. With five or six hundred children always under training
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CHAPTER XVI ON THE METROPOLITAN ASYLUMS BOARD
CHAPTER XVI ON THE METROPOLITAN ASYLUMS BOARD
Mr. Chaplin's Humane Circular to Poor Law Guardians—Crooks Appointed a Member of the Metropolitan Asylums Board—Chairman of the Children's Committee—His Knack of Getting His Own Way—Reorganising the Labour Conditions of the Board's Workmen. We have seen that the policy of Poor Law reform which Crooks was carrying out at Poplar won the good-will of the Local Government Board. Soon after Mr. Henry Chaplin took his seat in Lord Salisbury's Cabinet of 1895 he sent for Crooks, and the two spent a who
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CHAPTER XVII A BAD BOYS' ADVOCATE
CHAPTER XVII A BAD BOYS' ADVOCATE
Efforts on behalf of Diseased and Mentally-deficient Children—Altering the Law in Six Weeks—Establishing Remand Homes for First Offenders—London's Vagrant Child-Life—Reformatory and Industrial Schools—The Boy who Sat on the Fence—Theft of a Donkey and Barrow—Lads who want Mothering. Soon the call of the children reached his ears again. He had barely finished reorganising the labour conditions on the Asylums Board when he undertook a great task in the interests of the two thousand children who ha
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CHAPTER XVIII PROUD OF THE POOR
CHAPTER XVIII PROUD OF THE POOR
The Handy Man of Poplar—Peacemaker among his Neighbours—Piloting the Author of "In His Steps" through the Slums—Difference between a Street Arab and a Prince—Object Lesson for a Professor of Political Economy—How the Poor help the Poor. During these years the saying grew up among his neighbours that nothing happens in Poplar without someone running to Will Crooks about it. His little house at 28, Northumberland Street, to the north of East India Dock Road, was the gathering ground of all kinds o
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CHAPTER XIX THE FIRST WORKING-MAN MAYOR IN LONDON
CHAPTER XIX THE FIRST WORKING-MAN MAYOR IN LONDON
Elected Mayor of Poplar—"No Better than a Working-man"—Shouted Down at the Mansion House—The Lord Mayor Defends Him—Refusing a Salary—Slums and Fair Rent Courts—Fighting the Public-House Interests—Crying not for the Moon, but for the Sun. In November, 1901, Crooks was chosen to be Mayor of Poplar. In this, as in all his public offices, he was not the seeker, but the sought-after. Of the many public positions he has filled, not one has come of his own seeking. It has always been at the earnest so
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CHAPTER XX THE KING'S DINNER—AND OTHERS
CHAPTER XX THE KING'S DINNER—AND OTHERS
A Dinner to the Labour Mayor—The Mayoress—The King's Twenty-five Thousand Guests—The Prince and Princess of Wales at Poplar—Organising a Coronation Treat for Children—A Little Girl's Thanks—At the Lord Mayor's Banquet in a Blue Serge Suit—The Mayor of Poplar's Carriage at St. Paul's—A Testimonial on Quitting Office. Since the Labour Mayor was debarred by what he called his "chronic want of wealth" from entertaining at his own expense, the Poplar Labour League decided to entertain him at a dinner
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CHAPTER XXI THE MAN WHO PAID OLD AGE PENSIONS
CHAPTER XXI THE MAN WHO PAID OLD AGE PENSIONS
Address to the National Committee on Old Age Pensions—Paying Pensions through the Poor Law—A Walk from West to East—The Living Pension and the Living Wage—Scientific Starvation under Bumbledom—Defending the Living Pension at the L.G.B. Inquiry—Poplar "a Shining Light." With several other Labour leaders, Crooks was invited to join the National Committee on Old Age Pensions that arose out of Mr. Charles Booth's Conferences at Browning Hall. Mr. Richard Seddon, on his last visit to England, describ
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CHAPTER XXII ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT
CHAPTER XXII ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT
Labour Candidate for Woolwich—Lord Charles Beresford describes Crooks as a Fair and Square Opponent—How the Election Fund was Raised—Crooks recommended by John Burns as "Wise on Poor Law"—Half-loaf and Whole Loaf—"Greatest By-election Victory of Modern Times." On the morning of February 19th, 1903, the Press stated that considerable excitement was created in London on the previous day by the announcement that Lord Charles Beresford had been offered the command of the Channel squadron, and that h
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CHAPTER XXIII ADVENT OF THE POLITICAL LABOUR PARTY
CHAPTER XXIII ADVENT OF THE POLITICAL LABOUR PARTY
Congratulations—A Letter from Bishop Talbot—Bar-parlour Opinion—The Press on the Victory—The Birth of a Party—An Opponent of the South African War. Before Crooks went down to the House of Commons on the following day, he had a busy morning opening telegrams to the number of two or three hundred. Mr. John Burns, Mr. Keir Hardie, Mr. David Shackleton, wired their congratulations from the House of Commons. Other messages came from trade unions and groups of working-men and working-women in various
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CHAPTER XXIV THE LIVING WAGE FOR MEN AND WOMEN
CHAPTER XXIV THE LIVING WAGE FOR MEN AND WOMEN
Crooks's Maiden Speech—A Welcome from the Treasury Bench—Demand for a Fair Wage in Government Workshops—Advocating the Payment of Members and the Enfranchisement of Women—Crooks's Hold upon the House. A fortnight after his election to Parliament, Crooks made his maiden speech. He called attention to the fact that the Government was allowing portions of the national workshops at Woolwich Arsenal to remain idle while it was giving work that could be done in them to outside contractors. "I do not k
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CHAPTER XXV FREE TRADE IN THE NAME OF THE POOR
CHAPTER XXV FREE TRADE IN THE NAME OF THE POOR
M.P.'s Investments and their Votes—A Lecture from a Lady of Title—Urged to give up some of his Public Work—Defending Free Trade throughout the Country—Ridiculing Tariff Reform at Birmingham—A Brush with Mr. Chamberlain—Real "Little Englanders." "Show me where a man has his money invested and I will tell you how he will vote." Such was Crooks's way of summing up the House of Commons before he had been a Member many months. Someone had expressed surprise to him that both Liberal and Conservative M
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CHAPTER XXVI PREPARING FOR THE UNEMPLOYED ACT
CHAPTER XXVI PREPARING FOR THE UNEMPLOYED ACT
Principles for dealing with Unemployed—Twenty-four Per Cent. of Poplar's Wage-earners out of Work—Folly of Stone-breaking and Oakum-picking—Public Warning by Crooks and Canon Barnett—How Crooks used a Gift of £1,000. Crooks's three years in Mr. Balfour's Parliament had a remarkable triumph in the Unemployed Act. No one needs reminding that the measure was introduced by the Government; but as the sequel will show, it is doubtful whether it would have seen the light, and it is certain it would nev
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CHAPTER XXVII AGITATION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
CHAPTER XXVII AGITATION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
How the Workless Man Degenerates—Pleading the Cause of the Unemployed in the House—Creation of the Central Unemployed Committee—Feeding the Starving out of the Rates—"Would a Hen bring 'em off?"—A Letter from the Prime Minister—Crooks's Rejoinder. The interval was one of unwearied agitation. Of all his other pressing public duties he gave first place to this of urging the State to deal with the unemployed. "This unemployed question is a terrible worry, Crooks," said a Conservative member, walkin
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CHAPTER XXVIII THE QUEEN INTERVENES
CHAPTER XXVIII THE QUEEN INTERVENES
A Breakdown from Overwork—Health Permanently Impaired—Appointment of a Royal Commission on the Poor Law—Saving the Unemployed Bill—Need of Money to Work the Bill—Mrs. Crooks heads the Women's March to Whitehall—Mr. Balfour's Sympathetic but Unsatisfactory Reply—Queen Alexandra's Intervention—A Vote of Money in the New Parliament. The labour and anxiety, the long arduous days and the sleepless nights Crooks endured that winter for the unemployed, culminated in a sudden and serious illness. The at
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CHAPTER XXIX HOME LIFE AND SOME ENGAGEMENTS
CHAPTER XXIX HOME LIFE AND SOME ENGAGEMENTS
Crooks becomes a Grandfather—A Glimpse of his Home Life—Mr. G. R. Sims on "A Morning with Will Crooks"—Crooks's Daily Post-bag—Sample Letters—Speaking at Religious and Temperance Meetings—On Adult Sunday Schools—On the Licensing Bill—A Homily to Free Churchmen. By this time Crooks had moved from Northumberland Street to Gough Street, a few minutes' walk away. The change was from a five-roomed house to a six-roomed house, "with exactly three and a half feet more space for a garden at the back," a
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CHAPTER XXX COLONISING ENGLAND
CHAPTER XXX COLONISING ENGLAND
Signs of Progress—a Crown Farm Cut Up into Small Holdings—The Colony Experiment at Laindon—How it was Killed by the Local Government Board—The Hollesley Bay Farm—A Minister for Labour Wanted. After nearly twenty years of hard public service, Crooks saw some of the things for which he had striven so strenuously adopted as part of the policy of two successive Governments. Woolwich re-elected him at the General Election with over nine thousand votes, some three or four hundred more than it gave him
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CHAPTER XXXI THE REVIVAL OF BUMBLEDOM
CHAPTER XXXI THE REVIVAL OF BUMBLEDOM
Crooks's Poor Law Policy Attacked—How a Local Government Board Inquiry was Conducted—Crooks's Mistake in Remaining Chairman of the Board of Guardians—The Inspector's Report—Why the Poor Die rather than go to Poplar Workhouse. It is easy to understand that the humane spirit Crooks had infused into Poor Law administration, and the fact of his having made the State recognise a duty to the unemployed, was not acceptable to the old order of Poor Law administrators, nor to some of the officials of the
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CHAPTER XXXII APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE
CHAPTER XXXII APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE
Crooks Appeals to the Public—"This Insult to the Poor"—Resentment all over the Country—A Voice from the Hungry 'Forties—Cheering Letters—A Government Department's Blunder—Poplar's Appeal to Crooks. The day after the report of the Local Government Board Inspector was published, Crooks sent his decision upon it to the Press. He wrote from the House of Commons, where, as he stated in his letter, "the unfairness and injustice of the report in its bearings on my Poor Law policy are so far recognised
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CHAPTER XXXIII "THE HAPPY WARRIOR"
CHAPTER XXXIII "THE HAPPY WARRIOR"
A Cheerful Invalid and his Neighbours—The Starving Children in the Schools—Public Confidence in Crooks—Left Smiling. Shortly afterwards he was laid low for two or three weeks, the victim of his old enemy, muscular rheumatism. "Some of my ancestors must have been aristocrats," he used to tell his visitors good-naturedly from his sick bed in explanation of his recurring complaint. As usual, the knocker at No. 81, Gough Street, knew no rest during his illness. Hundreds of people called to leave sym
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Books by George Haw.
Books by George Haw.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE WORKING CLASSES. Edited by George Haw, with contributions by WILL CROOKS, Canon Barnett, Dr. Horton, and others. NO ROOM TO LIVE. The Story of Overcrowded London. TO-DAY'S WORK. A Popular Treatise on Local Government. THE ENGLISHMAN'S CASTLE. A Survey of the People's Housing Conditions in Town and Country. RELIGIOUS DOUBTS OF THE DEMOCRACY. Edited by George Haw, with contributions by G. K. Chesterton, George W. E. Russell, Professor Moulton, and others. BRITAIN'S HOMES. A St
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