. Jas. Keir Hardie's life story from pit trapper to Parliament . d the right to work ofevery citizen, and the responsibility ofthe state in regard to the provision ofthe same. The entrance of Hardie into the Brit-ish House of Commons upset all conven-tionalities, for it was not until KeirHardie entered pairliament in 1899 thatthe British House of Commons was toldthat unemployanent and poverty werematters of great national concern, aswell as Church Disestablishment, or thereduction of income tax. Ncr did he fear any man if he be-lieved the measure he advocated to beright even if in its advocacy
. Jas. Keir Hardie's life story from pit trapper to Parliament . d the right to work ofevery citizen, and the responsibility ofthe state in regard to the provision ofthe same. The entrance of Hardie into the Brit-ish House of Commons upset all conven-tionalities, for it was not until KeirHardie entered pairliament in 1899 thatthe British House of Commons was toldthat unemployanent and poverty werematters of great national concern, aswell as Church Disestablishment, or thereduction of income tax. Ncr did he fear any man if he be-lieved the measure he advocated to beright even if in its advocacy he had tostand alone. For instance, shortly after Hardiewas elected a terrible mining explosionoccurred in Wales, in which the toll ofdead amounted to several hundred. Atthe same time a bill was introduced inparliament to give £10,000 ($50,000) a veaT to one of the sons of our presentking George V., who was then only afew months old. Keir Hardie opposedthis measure, and moved an amendmentthat the money be sent to the widowsand orphans of the miners in Wales,. QUEER HARDIEPublished by permission of the pro-prietors of Vanity Fair. who had lost their husbands and fatherswith this terrible disaster. Parliamentwas shocked and, needless to say, noone voted for the amendment but him-self. Newspapers ridiculed him, andBpy produced his famous cartoon in Vanity Fair, Queer Hardie, whichwas reproduced all over the World. The more opposition that Hardiefound to confront him the greater be-came his determination to fight theworkers battles. For Hardie possess-ed that Scottish dourness which enabledhim to fight so hard to make the worldbetter. He would often tell his audiencethat he came of a Covenanting stock,who had given their lives for the causeof freedom. For it is not generallyknown that a predecessor of Keir Ha)-die, by the name of Andra Hardie, wassentenced by the British Government(at that time under the administrationof Sidmouth and Castlereagh), on July6. 1820, to be hanged, an
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectlabormovement, bookye
