The Autobiography of an Agitator BOOKS OF THE DAY

By VISCOUNT SNOWDEN Sin JAmns SEXTON, familiarly known as " Jimmy " Sexton, has been for nearly fifty years a prominent figure in the Trade Union and Labour movements. In this volume he tells his life story, and it is a story well worth the telling.

He is the son of an Irish peasant who was driven from Ireland by persecution and starvation, carrying with him memories and bitter hatred of the oppressors of his native land. His son was born in England, but he was nurtured on the wrongs of Ireland and fed upon the stories of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was natural that these early experiences should make a rebel of " Jimmy," and that his later experiences and the hardship of his own life should make him an agitator for the betterment of the conditions of his fellow-workers. Though the story of his early life is one of tragedy, the narration is relieved by his strong sense of humour and his inimitable gift of story-telling. The volume is well worth reading, apart from its solid merit as a chapter of industrial and social history, for the wealth of good stories it contains.

As a youth he was of a roving disposition. He ran away from home, went on tramp, slept in casual wards, and got lifts on wagons. He wanted to get to London, but, having no idea how to get there, he took any lorry which would give

1 a lift and eventually found- himself on the outskirts of Liverpool from where he had started. The romance of the sea was strong upon him, and he went afloat as a stowaway. He was discovered; and " I was soon drinking on deck," he says, " but not to the accompaniment of even an accordion. I supplied my own music and the time was set by a skilfully wielded rope's end. So ended another roinance." After his initiation he was enrolled on the ship's articles as a member of the crew with a wage of a shilling a month. He spent two years at sea, and we get a thrilling account of his experC. ences and of the conditions afloat in those days.

He eventually reached London. For the time being he had had enough of the romance of sea. He toiled for three years in a chemical works at fifteen shillings a week, and then the call of the sea again became irresistible. He joined a ship trading between Liverpool. and New York. On this voyage he had an experience which ought to have terminated his earthly existence ; but he was evidently to be spared to do a great work. On the way out he made the acquaintance of a shipmate who turned out to be an emissary of the notorious dynamitard O'Donovan Rossa, who, at that time, was keeping -a saloon in New York. Sexton visited this desperado with his shipmate, and when they came away his mate asked him to take charge of a parcel which he said contained contraband tobacco. At. the end of the voyage Sexton handed the parcel. to his mate. Two days later this man was arrested for trying to blow up Liverpool Town Hall. He was sentenced to twenty-five years' penal servi- tude. Sexton had _slept with this infernal machine under his mattress all the way from New York to Liverpool.

This was his last voyage. It was necessary for him to remain on shore to help to support his mother who had been widowed. So he drifted into the ranks of the casual labourers who struggled for intermittent work on the Liverpool docks. His account of the conditions under which this class worked and lived in those days makes very pathetic reading. Their wages were miserably small. They had not the protection of the Factory or Compensation Acts. It was while working on a temporary, job, -discharging ship's cargo,. that he met with a serious accident which maimed and disfigirred him for life. The accident was due to defective machinery. He Sir James Sexton 41tator, a'ftt!eSAigti got no compensation, and the half-crown which was paid for the cab which took him to the hospital was deducted from the pay due to him.

About this time there was great unrest among the dockers. in London and Glasgow, and this spread to Liverpool. A successful effort was made to organise the men in Liverpool, and Sexton was one of the first members of the Union.

Shortly after the Union was formed Sexton was appointed General Secretary, a position he retained for over forty years. A vivid account is given in this book of the early struggles of the Union ; of the bitter opposition it met with from the employers, who, Sexton believes, engineered a

hopeless strike with the object of crushing the Union while it was still weak. But after years of struggle, sustained by the faith of a few enthusiasts, the apathy of the men was overcome and the Union became firmly established.

About the time Sexton became General Secretary of the Union, the movement for the formation of an Independent Labour Party was taking shape in the industrial centres of Lancashire' and the West Riding. Sexton threw himself into this movement with heart and soul. He was present at the Conference at which the Independent Labour Party was formed ; and from the first was an active propagandist of the party. He spent his week-ends lecturing for the party. It was at one of these meetings I first met him over forty years ago.

When the I.L.P. was only about two years old, with more enthusiasm than discretion, it put, forward twenty-seven

candidates at the General Election of 1895. Sexton was one of these candidates, standing for Ashton-under-Lyne. He relates a. number of very amusing incidents of this campaign. He got a good deal of fun out of the fight, and

enjoyed his encounters with the hecklers, who often got the better of him. He declared at his first meeting that he

had come there to slay the Philistines, and a voice at the back of the hall shouted out, " An' I see tha's browt the jaw bone of an ass wi' thee." On another occasion Sexton was annoyed by the persistency of a heckler who was not satisfied with his replies. Sexton said to him, " I can answer your questions, but I cannot give you brains to understand the answers." " No," came the quick retort, " tha's nooan to spare."

Sexton polled 400 votes out of an electorate of 10,000. He and his supporters claimed the result as a great moral victory, and resorted to the clubroom to sing Carpenter's hymn, " England has risen anti the day is here." He con- tested a number of other constituencies later, but it was not till the Armistice Election of 19;1.8 that he was successful, winning,a seat from the Tories at St. Helens.

His return to the House of Commons was a well-deserved tribute to his long years of service to his fellow-workers.

He enjoyed his . thirteen years in Parliament. He was popular among all parties. But he had one grievous disap- pointment. When Mr. MacDonald formed his first Labour Government in 1924 he naturally expected that his long record of service in the Labour Party would receive some recognition. It was galling to him, as it was to many other veterans of the movement, to be passed over .for office for men who had done nothing to build up the Labour Party. I can, without reserve, recommend this volume of his Memoirs. The ranks of the pioneers of the Labour Party

are getting thinner. It is well that a generation which knows nothing of the_ struggles and sacrifices which have made the Labour Party should be reminded of what they owe to the pioneers, arid among them unman is more deserving of gratitude and zemembranee than James Sexton.