Page:William-morris-and-the-early-days-of-the-socialist-movement.djvu/36

Rh took its wider political form in the formation of the Independent Labour Party. He had, however, for several years previously taken a great interest in Socialism, and had both in his art lectures and occasional political addresses spoken from a definitely Socialistic standpoint.

'I am truly glad,' he wrote to Lady Burne-Jones, 'that I have joined the only society that I could find is definitely socialistic.'

A few months later he wrote her: 'I am sure it is right, whatever the apparent consequences may be, to stir up the lower class (damn the word) to demand a higher standard of life for themselves, not merely for the sake of themselves and the material comfort it will bring, but for the good of the whole world and the regeneration of the conscience of man; and this stirring up is part of the necessary education which must in good truth go before the reconstruction of society. For I repeat that without laying before the people this reconstruction, our education will but breed tryants and cowards, big, little and least, down to the smallest who can screw out money from standing by to see another man working for him. The one thing I want you to be clear about is that I cannot help acting in this matter and associating myself with anybody who has the root of the matter.'

The Federation was then a small organisation consisting only of a few dozen affiliated branches or clubs, the majority of them in London, and each with a score or two of members. Shortly after joining it Morris was induced, very reluctantly, to become treasurer of the Party, an office which, besides compelling him to bother with keeping accounts, a thing he detested, also entailed a constant drain upon his own purse, as the outlayings always exceeded the intakings of the treasury.

Small in membership and still young in years as the Federation was, it had already by the time I am speaking of become afflicted with the disease of internal dissension.