FROM WORKHOUSE TO
WESTMINSTER
WILL CROOKS, M.P.
Photo: G. Dendry.
FROM WORKHOUSE
TO WESTMINSTER
The 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
PREFACE
This record of the career of a man whom I have known intimately in hispublic and private life for over a dozen years can claim at least onedistinction. It is the first biography of a working man who hasdeliberately chosen to remain in the ranks of working men as well as intheir service. From the day in the early 'nineties when he was calledupon to decide between a prospective partnership in a prosperousbusiness and the hard, joyless life of a Labour representative, withpoverty for his lot and slander for his reward, he has adhered to theprinciple he then laid down, consistently refusing ever since the manyinvitations received from various quarters to come up higher. There havebeen endless biographies of men who have risen from the ranks of Labourand then deserted those ranks for wealthy circles. Will Crooks, in hisown words, has not risen from the ranks; he is still in the ranks,standing four-square with the working classes against monopoly and privilege.
This book would have been an autobiography rather than a biography couldI have had my way. Nor was I alone in urging Crooks to write the story[Pg viii]of his life, as strenuous in its poverty as it has been in its publicservice. He always argued that that was not in his way at all—that, infact, he did not believe in men sitting down to write about themselvesany more than he believed in men getting up to talk about themselves.
So I have done the next best thing. Since the interpretation dependsupon the interpreter, I have tried, in writing this account of his life,to make him the narrator as often as I could. Most of the incidents inhis career I have given in his own words, mainly from personal talks wehave had together during our years of friendship, sometimes by our ownfiresides, sometimes amid the stress of public life, sometimes duringlong walks in the streets of London. Nor do any of the incidents lose indetail or in verity by reason of many of those cherished conversationshaving taken place long before either o