From Crow-Scaring to Westminster: An Autobiography

The Government were forewarned of these things. They know that this land is there ready to produce something. Indeed, I would venture to state that there is not an acre of land in this country which does not produce something that the nation needs. All that is necessary is that the people should have an opportunity of getting on the land. With regard to the Land Settlement scheme, as a County Councillor I have had something to do with putting this Act into force. What are the facts? We were told that there were £8,000,000 set aside for this purpose. So far as my County Council is concerned – and I think we stand second in the country for putting the Small Holdings and Allotments Act into force – we were told that we were to have this money to purchase land. What does the Land Settlement Act do? It compels us to give inflated prices for the land, and, having given inflated prices – not pre-war value, but war-profit value, the price to which it has been run up in the market by the land gamblers – we are compelled to charge these ex-service men, these heroes who have fought our battles, and who were told by the Prime Minister that they should have a land fit for heroes to live in, where no inhabitants should ever hunger – we have to charge them a rent that we know full well they will never be able to pay and get a living. The Government come along and say: "Yes, we will lend you money, but will charge you 6 per cent. for it," and we have to charge that back to these poor fellows. In my own county we have 500 ex-service men who cannot get on the land, and we have spent all the money the Government will let us have. I would make an appeal to the right hon. gentleman opposite and to the Government to take this question seriously. I have spent fifty years of my life trying to upraise my class. I have endeavoured to exercise a moderating influence, and I think that up to the present I have been successful. No one can charge me with being an extremist. I want, however, to point this out to the Government. Our influence over men and women may be lessened when they know that the barns are full and the cupboard is empty. Therefore I ask them to use all the powers they possess under the Defence of the Realm Act and to deal at once with this land problem. It can be dealt with at once. Set these men to work. We do not plead for doles; we do not plead for charity. What we say is: "In Heaven's name, find them work!"

During the Autumn Session I never left the House nor missed a Division. In the middle of November the Agricultural Bill was brought before the House on its report stage. This received my whole-hearted support in all its stages and I spoke several times when it was before the House. With my friends Mr. Royce and Mr. Smith I tried to improve it by moving new clauses from the point of view of giving the labourer who lived in a tied cottage some security in his home and, after several interviews with Sir Arthur Boscawen, the Minister who had charge of the Bill, we were able to make a little improvement by securing to the labourers compensation in the shape of a year's rent and expenses of removal if compelled to leave his cottage at short notice. We also secured to the tenant farmer some security of tenure or compensation for disturbance and we also secured a minimum price for his corn and the re-establishment of the Wage Board for four years, which alas! was so soon to be abolished by the repeal of the Agricultural Act of 1921.

During the passage of the Agricultural Act we had many late nights. The last days of the sitting, December 20th and 21st, I never left the House for thirty-six hours and went into the Division Lobby nearly thirty times against the Lords Amendments. This concluded my first experience of the House of Commons.

Soon after my entrance into Parliament I was asked to become a member of the Industrial Christian Fellowship, an association established by leaders of the Church of England for the purpose of bringing our industrial system more into harmony with the principles taught by Christ Himself and further of endeavouring to create a higher spiritual life in the great Labour movement and preventing it from becoming too materialistic. As that had been my ideal all through my long public life, it at once appealed to me, and I decided to accept the invitation to become a member of the General Council. The first meeting I attended and addressed was at Hull. Before going, however, I expressed a wish to meet members of the Trades and Labour Council. A meeting was arranged and I found there was a suspicion amongst the Trade Unionists in the city that there was some ulterior motive behind it. I endeavoured to dispel this suspicion. My address was entitled "The High Ideals of the Labour Movement." The large hall was full and the Mayor presided.

In November of the same year (1920) I received an invitation from Canon Newson to give an address in Newcastle-on-Tyne Cathedral on December 5th. I accepted the invitation and at Newcastle was met at the station by Canon Newson with whom I stayed the week-end. During the afternoon I was introduced to the Bishop with whom I had a long talk on the religious aspect of the movement. In the evening I met members of the Trades and Labour Council at the Canon's House. On Sunday afternoon I gave my address on "Religion and Labour" in the cathedral.

This address was listened to with marked attention by a large congregation. The fact that a layman and a prominent Nonconformist had been invited to give an address in a cathedral had created widespread interest. Many of the daily papers gave a long report of my address. Since then I have spoken in two churches in London on "National Righteousness." This I think is a sign that there is a great awakening in the social consciousness of the people and that a spirit of fellowship and goodwill is abroad such as has never been manifested before. I consider that I have never been connected with a movement that was calculated to bring our industrial and social life on to a higher platform and I wish it God-speed in its good work.

In February 1921 I was invited by His Majesty the King to an afternoon garden party at Buckingham Palace, and on my being introduced to the King and His Majesty ascertaining that I came from Norfolk, he expressed a wish to have a few minutes' talk with me. His Majesty asked me concerning my early life, also the condition of the people in Norfolk. The matter was given publicity through the press and the following appeared in one paper: —

By invitation of their Majesties the King and Queen, Mr. George Edwards, M.P., attended the afternoon party at Buckingham Palace last Thursday. Mr. Edwards had the honour of being presented to their Majesties, and during the afternoon the King expressed a wish to have some further conversation with the member for South Norfolk, to whom His Majesty directed inquiries respecting his early days. The King evinced deep interest in the story Mr. Edwards told, and later the Queen also invited the member to relate to her the story of his early struggles.

After cordially greeting Mr. Edwards, the King said he was interested to know that he came from Norfolk, and inquired if the member was a native of this county. His Majesty also inquired what occupation Mr. Edwards' father followed.

The remarkable story of the member's progress from workhouse to Westminster greatly interested the King, who plied Mr. Edwards with questions relative to his early life.

Mr. Edwards told His Majesty that he was a native of Norfolk, and that his father, like himself, was an agricultural labourer. "At the time of my birth," said Mr. Edwards, "the wages of the agricultural labourer were 8s. a week, and at the time of the Crimean War in 1854 the cost of living rose to its highest, but the wages of the labourer remained stationary."

"And how did you fare?" inquired the King.

"My father and mother had to undergo the greatest privations," Mr. Edwards replied. "We never had bread enough and the family were fed largely on turnips which my father brought from his master's field. At five years of age I was a workhouse boy."

"And this was really the way you lived?" exclaimed the King.

His Majesty was obviously touched by the account given him and expressed the deepest sympathy.

"One of my own labourers," said the King, "brought up a family on 13s. a week, but this is much worse. How were you educated?"

"I never went to school in my life," said the member. "My wife first taught me to read, and I put myself in a position to purchase books by giving up the luxury of tobacco."

His Majesty asked as to the welfare of the labourers to-day and inquired if they were better off?

"Yes, decidedly," replied Mr. Edwards, "but there is a good deal of privation now."

The conversation then turned to the position of affairs on His Majesty's Norfolk estate at Sandringham, the King suggesting that working conditions there were satisfactory.

Mr. Edwards agreed, and said he desired to express the greatest appreciation of the efforts of the King in regard to working conditions at Sandringham. "If all other landlords followed along the same lines," added Mr. Edwards, "there would be little trouble."

The King expressed his best wishes for Mr. Edwards' future.

Mr. Edwards had several minutes' conversation with the Queen, who gave further proof of her interest in the housing of the people. Her Majesty referred to housing conditions at Sandringham, and Mr. Edwards expressed appreciation of what had been done for the labourers on the estate with regard to housing, and remarked that everything had been done that it was possible to do for the home comforts of the tenants.

This brings my story almost to a close.

During my time I have seen what amounts almost to a revolution in the lives of the people. There is no comparison between the life of the village worker when I was a lad and now. I have seen one Trade Union spring up and fall. But during its short life, under the leadership of Joseph Arch, George Rix, Z. Walker and others, it did some wonderful work for the agricultural workers. Through its influence the labourers were enfranchised. The District and Parish Council Act was put in force, and I look back with pleasure at the humble part I was able to take in this matter. Many years after that, as stated above, I founded the present Union, and I have lived to see it spread from Norfolk into every county in England and Wales. It has gone from a little back-room of mine in a little cottage in which I lived at Gresham to a fine block of buildings at 72, Acton Street, London. It has accomplished much for the agricultural labourers. It has entirely altered and brightened up the monotonous life of the labourer. It has given him a broader outlook on life and I hope he will let nothing separate him from the Union that has in so short a time done so much for him, his wife and children.

As in the days of Arch there is again another attempt to divide our forces by introducing what they call a New Union. This is being done by those who ought to have known better. Are the labourers going to let history repeat itself? If so, then all the sacrifice I have made and the years of labour I have given on their behalf will be thrown away. No, I cannot believe they will. I have too strong a faith in their good common sense and in their devotion and gratitude towards those who laboured so hard for them to be led away by the platitudes of some new-born friends.

In presenting my readers with my life-story let me ask them, especially the young readers, as they read it to watch carefully my limitations and failings (and they will detect many), to study them attentively, and in starting out in life to try and avoid them. Also, whatever they may see in the story that is worthy to be followed, let them try to follow it. They are starting life now, thank God, under much better circumstances than I did.

As they read the facts here related they will notice a touch of sadness running through it all. They will also notice the many bitter struggles I have had coming along this somewhat rugged road of life; how I have battled to lift myself above my environment; how I have laboured to educate myself and to inform myself on all public questions, and I hope they will also detect a burning desire from the first to use the knowledge I had obtained for the benefit of my own class, as I hope, with some amount of success. They will, I trust, gather from the early pages of this story that the sufferings of my parents and the privations that they underwent for their children had branded themselves on my soul like a hot iron and that from my very early days I became determined to do all I could to make the life of my own class much brighter and better than it was in those dark days.

As I look back on the years of the past and the events in my life I am mystified. I cannot understand what has been the overruling power in my life. As the reader will see, disappointments have been my lot over and over again. Many times in the hour of disappointment, smarting under what I felt to be the ingratitude of the class for whom I made so much sacrifice, I have said I could never again make any attempt to help them. Yet as often as I have said that some overpowering force compelled me to re-enter the field.

There is, however, a secret behind all this and a reason for the success that has crowned my labours although late in life. First the loving and devoted wife it was my fortune to have. Never on any occasion, whatever her own feelings might be, did she sound one despondent note; but in my hours of depression would always give me a word of encouragement. Although her death cast a great sadness on my life, yet at the opportune moment there was light in the darkness, for at her death her niece, Mrs. Kenrick, who is so much like her in character and, if it could be possible, even more sympathetic, offered to come and look after me as she has done for these last ten years. She has entered into all my public life and has made my life brighter than it could otherwise have been and made the road to success much easier.

Another cause of the success in my life has been the strong character I have been able to build up by embracing Christian principles and my strong faith in the great sacrificial life of Christ who gave His life for the cause of humanity. It has enabled me to put my best into everything I have taken in hand, and I would like to impress upon my readers that in my opinion that is the only true road to success in life. I am sure it has been the real cause of my being able to accomplish what I have in the cause to which I have devoted so much of my life.

Amidst all the turmoil of my public life I have remained true to my first faith and have been loyal to the first Church of my choice, the Primitive Methodist, and filled most of the offices open to laymen in connection with that Church. This I would recommend to my readers as being the one essential thing: whatever our convictions may be, to be true to them.

I can truly say that has been my one impelling motive and is what I have always aimed at, to be true to my conscience. I never entered into anything until I had assured myself it was right and, when once I had done that, nothing whatever could turn me from the path of duty.

Sometimes the members of my own Church could not quite understand me. One point in connection with my public work on which I have differed from them is the holding of labour meetings on Sundays. They hold strong convictions that such meetings are not paying due reverence to the Sunday as we ought to. I was some long time before I came to any other conclusion and refused to take any part in Sunday labour meetings. I thought the matter out very seriously for myself, however, and at last I came to the conclusion that the Labour movement was built on the very rock of Christianity and that I was as much serving God by preaching what I believed to be the gospel of God, namely economic freedom, as when I occupied the pulpit. When, however, responsible for arranging such meetings I would insist upon them being conducted on strictly religious lines. I again ask my young readers to stand by their convictions, think out matters for themselves and, once convinced they are right, go straight forward. But above all to be true to God and your brother man is the only road to success.

The great human progress that has been made during this past seventy years, especially in the lives of the agricultural labourers, in which I have been able to take some humble part, is marvellous. Seventy years ago the village labourer was a mere chattel in the industrial world. His children were badly fed and uneducated.

The labourer had no voice in his local affairs. He had no vote. He was compelled to accept such conditions as were offered him and dared not complain. If he did so, he was a marked man. Now we have obtained for him collective bargaining and through his organizations he has a voice in all local authorities. This has worked a wonderful change. He has his vote and is now qualified to be even a Justice of the Peace. Both men and women have already been appointed. Many of the old colleagues that helped to bring about this change have passed away. In fact, I am the only one left to take any active part in public movements of those that worked with the late Joseph Arch, the founder of the first Union in 1872. Many of them died before they saw accomplished what they had set themselves out to do. But other men are reaping where they have sowed. I have seen the first Unions come and go and with their fall the labourer set back. And in 1906 I founded the greatest Union and, as will be seen by this story, it was built up by hard work and at great sacrifice by others besides myself, to whom the men owe a great debt of gratitude. Some of these worthy men I will name: Mr. G. E. Hewitt, Mr. J. A. Arnett, Mr. W. Holmes, Mr. T. G. Higdon, the late Mr. Robert Green, and lastly my dear and closest friend, Mr. W. R. Smith M.P., the President of the Union, upon whose shoulders the brunt of the Union's work is at the moment. I ought also to say that I could not possibly have done what I did at the early stages of the Union had it not have been for the financial help I received from my friends the Earl of Kimberley and Mr. Herbert Day of Norwich. Now the one great question that weighs upon my mind is this: Are the men for whom I spent my life going to maintain the position that has been won for them? The position is not without danger. As in the days of Mr. Arch, so now there are forces working to divide the men and to spread distrust amongst them if they succeed. There is a danger of much that has been gained being lost. I have, however, great faith in the cause of democracy and there is still a brighter day to come for the men in our country-side. I may not live to see it. My last word of this story to my colleagues and to the young men is to work on in your good cause, to be reasonable and just, and to let the spirit of moderation and goodwill dwell amongst you.

Oh! droop not though pain, sin and anguish be round theeBravely fling off the gold chain that hath bound thee.Look to clear Heaven shining above thee.Rest not content in thy darkness a clod.Work for some good, be it ever so slowly.Labour, all labour, is noble and holy.Let thy great deeds be thy prayer to God.