92 KEIR HARDIE
and fawning upon rich men ; no hampering
paralysing alliances ; no half-hearted adherence
to principle.
" Simply a straightforward, honest, dignified
movement, self-supporting and self-contained,
marching forward irresistibly to a self-assured
triumph."
More familiar, too, the proposition that the
means of producing the necessaries of life - food,
clothing, dwellings - should be owned by the
community and be used to produce for service,
not for profit. Municipal Socialism had widely
spread. Property valued at £500,000,000 had
passed from private to public ownership. Thus
Socialism was not the word of fear it had been
in the Labour Movement eight years earlier.
A Socialist had been president of the Trades
Union Congress (O'Grady, afterwards Sir James).
Another had been elected secretary of the Engin-
eers3 Union (George N. Barnes, afterwards
Right Honourable). Most encouraging sign of
all to Keir Hardie was the setting-up of the
Labour Representation Committee for which he
had clamoured so long. Before many years
passed this was to develop into the Labour Party.
At its birth there occurred a difficulty which
might have killed it. Hardie's intervention to
avert this risk showed both the power and the
wisdom of the infant*s begetter. A squabble
arose as to whether Independent Labour candi-
dates for seats in Parliament should be required