John Burns, the son of an engineer, was born in Lambeth, London
on 20th October, 1858. After a brief education became an apprentice
in the engineering industry. One of his fellow workers, Victor Delahaye,
introduced Burns to radical writers such as John
Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle and John
Ruskin.
In 1879 Burns joined the Amalgamated Society
of Engineers and found employment with the United Africa Company.
Horrified by the way the Africans were treated, Burns became convinced
that only socialism would remove the inequalities between races and
classes. He returned to England in 1881 and soon afterwards formed
the Battersea branch of the Social Democratic
Federation (SDF). One of the first people to join was another
young engineer, Tom Mann.
John Burns was elected to the executive council of the Social
Democratic Federation and in the 1885 General
Election was their unsuccessful candidate in Nottingham
West. The following year he led a demonstration in London against
unemployment. The march degenerated into a riot and Burns was arrested
and charged with conspiracy and sedition. He was acquitted but in
November, 1887, he was arrested with his friend, Robert
Cunninghame Graham during the Bloody Sunday
demonstration in London. This time he was
sentenced to six weeks in prison.
In June, 1889, John Burns left the Social Democratic
Federation after a disagreement with the party's leader, H.
Hyndman. Like his friend, Tom Mann, Burns
was now convinced that socialism would be achieved through trade union
activity rather than by parliamentary elections.
When the
London Dock Strike started in August 1889,
Ben Tillett asked John Burns to help win
the dispute. Burns, a passionate orator, helped to rally the dockers
when they were considering the possibility of returning to work. He
was also involved in raising money and gaining support from other
trade unionists. During the dispute Burns emerged with Ben
Tillett and Tom Mann as one of the three
main leaders of the strike.
The employers hoped to starve the dockers back to work but other trade
union activists such as Will Thorne, Eleanor
Marx, James Keir Hardie and Henry
Hyde Champion, gave valuable support to the 10,000 men now out
on strike. Organizations such as the Salvation
Army and the Labour Church raised money
for the strikers and their families. Trade Unions in Australia sent
over £30,000 to help the dockers to continue the struggle. After
five weeks the employers accepted defeat and granted all the dockers'
main demands.
Burns was now a well-known labour leader and in the elections for
the newly created London County Council,
he was elected to represent Battersea. At one of the meetings Burns
managed to get a motion passed that stated that in future all Council
work should only be awarded to those contractors who agreed to observe
trade union standards on wages and working conditions.
In the 1892 General Election John Burns was
elected to represent Battersea in the House
of Commons. Burns now joined the other socialist who won a seat
in the election, James Keir Hardie. Whereas
Burns was willing to work closely with the Liberal
Party, Hardie argued for the formation of a new working class
political party. Burns attended the meeting in 1900 that established
the Labour Representation Committee, the
forerunner of the Labour Party, but refused
to join and continued to align himself to the Liberal
Party.
Burns knew that the Liberal Party might
win the next election whereas the Labour Party
would take a long time before it was in a position to form a government.
When the Liberal Party won the 1906
General Election, the new Prime Minister, Henry
Campbell-Bannerman, offered John Burns the post of President of
the Local Government Board.
Burns, the first member of the working-class to become a government
minister, disappointed the labour movement with his period in office.
Burns was responsible for only one important piece of legislation,
the Housing and Town Planning Act of
1909, during his time in government. Burns, who was now earning £5,000
a year, was bitterly attacked in the House
of Commons by old comrades such as Fred
Jowett, when he argued for no outdoor relief to be given to the
poor. Burns was reminded how he had been a strong critic of the Poor
Law and the workhouse system when he had been a member of the
Social Democratic Federation.
Supporters
of Burns point out that he did have his successes. For example, he
piloted through the House of Commons the
1910 Census Bill that sought to obtain more information about both
family structure and urban conditions in order for the government
to develop policies to tackle problems such as infant mortality and
slum housing. By 1913 his administrative reforms had resulted in a
more effective deployment of medical staff in the infirmaries.
Burns gradually
began to question the growth in the Welfare State. He told a conference
in August 1913, that the government and charity organisations should
not "supersede the mother, and they should not by over-attention
sterilise her initiative and capacity to do what every mother should
be able to do for herself."
In 1914 Burns was appointed as President of
the Board of Trade. However, soon afterwards, the British government
decided to declare war on Germany. Burns
was opposed to Britain becoming involved in a European conflict and
along with John Morley and Charles
Trevelyan, resigned from the government.
Burns, without the support of the Liberal Party
or the Labour Party, and aware that the
public felt hostile to those politicians who did not fully support
Britain's involvement in the First World War,
decided not to stand in the 1918 General Election.
Burns played no further role in politics after 1918. The following
year Andrew Carnegie
left Burns an annuity of £1,000. Burns spent the rest of his
life on his hobbies: the history of London, book collecting and cricket.
John Burns died on 24th January, 1943.
(1)
Tom Mann, Memoirs, (1923)
John Burns and I became close friends and good comrades. He was two
years my junior, but looked older than I. We were both members of
the Amalgamated Engineers, he of the West London branch, and I of
the Battersea branch. He had a splendid voice and a very effective
and business-like way of putting a case. He looked well on a platform.
He always wore a serge suit, a white shirt, a black tie, and a bowler
hat. Surprisingly fluent, with a voice that could fill every part
of the largest hall or theatre, and, if the wind were favourable,
could reach a twenty-thousand audience in the parks, etc.
(2)
In his book, My Days and Dreams, Edward
Carpenter described the events of Bloody Sunday.
A socialist meeting had been announced for 3 p.m. in Trafalgar
Square, the authorities, probably thinking Socialism a much greater
terror than it really was, had vetoed the meeting and drawn a ring
of police, two deep, all round the interior part of the Square.
The three leading members of the SDF - Hyndman, Burns and Cunninghame
Graham - agreed to march up arm-in-arm and force their way if possible
into the charmed circle. Somehow Hyndman was lost in the crowd on
the way to the battle, but Graham and Burns pushed their way through,
challenged the forces of 'Law and Order', came to blows, and were
duly mauled by the police, arrested, and locked up.
I was in the Square at the time. The crowd was a most good-humoured,
easy going, smiling crowd; but presently it was transformed. A regiment
of mounted police came cantering up. The order had gone forth that
we were to be kept moving. To keep a crowd moving is I believe a technical
term for the process of riding roughshod in all directions, scattering,
frightening and batoning the people.
I saw my friend Robert Muirhead seized by the collar by a mounted
man and dragged along, apparently towards a police station, while
a bobby on foot aided in the arrest. I jumped to the rescue and slanged
the two constables, for which I got a whack on the cheek-bone from
a baton, but Muirhead was released.
The case came into Court afterwards, and Burns and Graham were sentenced
to six weeks' imprisonment, each for "unlawful assembly".
I was asked to give evidence in favour of the defendants, and gladly
consented - though I had not much to say, except to testify to the
peaceable character of the crowd and the high-handed action of the
police. In cross-examination I was asked whether I had not seen any
rioting; and when I replied in a very pointed way "Not on the
part of the people!" a large smile went round the Court, and
I was not plied with any more questions.
(3)
John Burns, The Great Strike (1889)
Still
more important perhaps, is the fact that labour of the humbler kind
has shown its capacity to organise itself; its solidarity; its ability.
The labourer has learned that combination can lead him to anything
and everything. He has tasted success as the immediate fruit of combination,
and he knows that the harvest he has just reaped is not the utmost
he can look to gain. Conquering himself, he has learned that he can
conquer the world of capital whose generals have been the most ruthless
of his oppressors.
(4)
J. R. Clynes, Memoirs (1937)
Angry Labour leaders announced that, on Sunday, November 13th, 1887,
Trafalgar Square would be stormed. Squadrons of military, fully armed,
and powerful detachments of police, were drafted there to resist any
such attempt. On the appointed day, workers led by Burns and others
tried to force a way through the armed ranks, to demonstrate the rights
of free speech. Bricks and stones were flung, iron railings crashed
on sabres and bayonets, dozens of workmen were wounded, and the attack
was beaten off. Burns and others were arrested.
A month or two later, another effort was made to storm the Square,
and a workman was killed. Burns made a speech at the funeral, and
was again arrested. At his trial at the Old Bailey, H. H. Asquith
was Counsel for the Defence. Burns was sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment;
later, he and Asquith were Cabinet Ministers together.
(5)
John Burns, speech to dock workers (16th August, 1889)
Remember
the match girls who won their strike and formed a union; take courage
from the gas stokers who only a few weeks ago won the eight hour day.
(6)
In his book, Memories
and Reflections, Ben Tillett describes
the work that John Burns did for the Dockers' Strike in 1889.
In his blue reefer suit and white straw
hat, familiar to the cartoonist, John Burns lent us his stentorian
voice and picturesque personality, and created that legendary John
Burns to whose allegiance the retired Cabinet Minister, alive and
hearty as I write these lines, has remained faithful ever since. John
Burns did a great deal for the workers, and the workers did much for
John.
Later Burns won the Battersea seat and joined the Liberal Party, reaching
Cabinet rank as the first genuine working man. his magnetic and striking
personality made him an outstanding figure in those days. an amazing
egoism, a quick brain, a mighty voice and a wonderful strength of
body gave vitality to his vanity and bluffness.
(7)
Henry Snell first met John Burns in 1883.
John Burns was one of the Social Democratic Federation's best
speakers. He was then about twenty-five years of age, and in the full
strength of his manhood. His power as a popular street-corner orator
was probably unequalled in that generation. He had a voice of unusual
range, a big chest capacity; and he possessed great physical and nervous
vitality. His method of attracting a crowd was, immediately he rose
to speak, and for one or two minutes only, to open all the stops of
his organ-like voice. The crowd once secured, his vocal energy was
modified, but his vitality and masterful diction held his audience
against all competitors.
(8)
John Burns, interview in Le Figaro (16th August, 1889)
We go in
for progressive reforms. For my part I have two eyes which I make
use of, one fixed on the ground on the lookout for practical things
immediately realisable, the other looking upward - toward the ideal.
I recognise that Socialism has ended its purely theoretical course,
and that the hour to construct has come. When I have to mount a staircase
I climb up step by step. If I want to go up ten stairs at a time I
break my neck - and that is not my intention.
(9)
Beatrice Webb, diary entry (12th October,
1893)
Jealously
and suspicion of rather a mean kind is John Burns's burning sin. A
man of splendid physique, fine strong intelligence, human sympathy,
practical capacity, he is unfitted for a really great position by
his utter inability to be a constant for a loyal comrade. He stands
absolutely alone. He is intensely jealous of other Labour men, acutely
suspicious of all middle-class sympathizers, while his hatred of Keir
Hardie reaches about the dimensions of mania. All said and done, it
is pitiful to see this splendid man a prey to egotism of the most
sordid kind.
(10)
John Burns, letter to a friend (1896)
I am only
doing now what I have ever done; and ever will continue to do - that
is adapting past experience to present reform in the light of high
ideals and future objects. In this work I have received the opposition
of a number of men who only advocate the unobtainable because the
immediately possible is beyond their moral courage, administrative
ability, and their political prescience.
I must
firmly adhere to the views I have held and practice, that Socialism
to succeed must be practical, tolerant, cohesive and consciously compromising
with Progressive forces running, if not so far, in parallel lines
towards its own goal. I don't believe that the man who comes furthest
my way and nearest to my programme is my most distant enemy. "He
who is not wholly for us is wholly against us" is the plaint
of the fool or the fanatic. Judge men less by the labels they wear
than by their persistent labour for sure if slow progress.
If "our
party right or wron"' is to be the rallying cry of a working
class movement then it has assumed the very defects that its advocates
decry in others. The recent I.L.P. conference from which I had expected
some change in methods and tactics has confirmed my previous views
of its leaders.
(11)
John Burns, lecture on poverty and local government (7th December
1903)
Individual
effort is almost relatively impossible to cope with the big problem
of poverty as we see it. I want the municipality to be a helping hand
to the man with a desire of sympathy, to help the fallen when it is
not in their power to help themselves. I believe the proper business
of a Municipality is to do for the individual merged in the mass what
the individual cannot do so well alone.
(12)
John Burns, speech at a local school's prize-giving ceremony, quoted
in the South Western Star (2nd December 1904)
You come
before me this morning with clean hands and clean collars. I want
you to have clean tongues, clean manners, clean morals and clean characters.
I don't want boys to use bad language. I don't want boys to buy cigarettes.
I don't want boys to use their pencils for improper writing. Don't
hustle old people. I neither drink nor smoke, because my schoolmaster
impressed upon me three cardinal virtues; cleanliness in person, cleanliness
in mind; temperance.
(13)
Fenner Brockway, a member of the Independent
Labour Party, later recalled how Fred Jowett
attacked John Burns for changing his views on the Poor
Law once he became a government minister.
Jowett
came into conflict with John Burns over his mean administration of
the Poor Law. Twenty-four years earlier Burns had been co-leader with
Tillett of the dockers' strike, regarded by the public as a revolutionary,
but now he had become the most orthodox President of the Local Government
Board, encouraging Poor Law Guardians to refuse outdoor relief to
the destitute and to drive them into the workhouse. From this day
onwards (Jowett's speech attacking Burns in the House of Commons)
Burns lost his reputation among the public as a "Socialist",
or even as a "Labour man". He had clearly gone over to the
other side.
(14)
Beatrice Webb, diary entry (30th October,
1907)
Burns is
a monstrosity, an enormous personal vanity feeding on the deference
and flattery yielded to patronage and power. He talks incessantly,
and never listens to anyone except the officials to whom he must listen
in order to accomplish the routine work of of his office. Hence he
is completely in their hands and is becoming the most hidebound of
departmental chiefs.
(15)
John Burns, diary entry (23rd September 1912)
I am depressed rather at the wave of brutality sweeping over the
country. The new spirit is manifesting itself in a bad way. Impatience
with serious grievance, resistance to solid injustice, revolt even
against intolerable wrong certainly but the revolutionary spirit is
now evoked and responded to in matters that disciplined patience for
a short period would resist and a contemptuous indifference could
dispose of.
(16)
John Burns, diary entry (27th July 1914)
Why four
great powers should fight over Serbia no fellow can understand. This
I know, there is one fellow who will have nothing to do with such
a criminal folly, the effects of which will be appalling to the welter
of nations who will be involved. It must be averted by all the means
in our power.
Apart
from the merits of the case it is my especial duty to dissociate myself,
and the principles I hold and the trusteeship for the working classes
I carry from such a universal crime as the contemplated war will be.
My duty is clear and at all costs will be done.
(17)
On the 4th September, 1914 C. P. Scott,
recorded details of a meeting he had with David
Lloyd George.
He (Lloyd George), Beauchamp, Morley and Burns had all resigned
from the Cabinet on the Saturday before the declaration of war on
the ground that they could not agree to Grey's pledge to Cambon (the
French ambassador in London) to protect north coast of France against
Germans, regarding this as equivalent to war with Germany. On urgent
representations of Asquith he (Lloyd George) and Beauchamp agreed
on Monday evening to remain in the Cabinet without in the smallest
degree, as far as he was concerned, withdrawing his objection to the
policy but solely in order to prevent the appearance of disruption
in face of a grave national danger. That remains his position. He
is, as it were, an unattached member of the Cabinet.
(18)
John Burns was appalled when David Lloyd
George ousted Herbert
Asquith as prime minister.
He wrote about the events in his diary entry (8th December 1916)
The men
who made the war were profuse in their praises of the man who kicked
the P.M. out of his office and now degrades by his disloyal, dishonest
and lying presence the greatest office in the State. The Gentlemen
of England serve under the greatest cad in Europe.
(19)
John Burns kept a diary for many years. The last entry was on 16th
May 1920, over twenty years before his death.
Books are
a real solace, friendships are good but action is better than all
For the moment and for some time great events have been denied me,
forward action not come my way. I believe, however, that impending
events will call us and we must respond but where, with whom, and
how?
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