Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden

Philip Snowden

Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden (born July 18, 1864 in Cowling, † May 15, 1937 in Tilford ) was a British politician and the first British Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Labor Party . For a short time he was a member of the national coalition government under Ramsay MacDonald and was expelled from the Labor Party.

Childhood and youth

Snowden was born in Cowling near the town of Keighley in the West Riding of Yorkshire . His parents were weavers. His father was a Methodist and a radical liberal . Philip Snowden was raised a Methodist, became an anti-alcoholic and, like his father, joined the Liberal Party.

Despite his poverty, the father had saved enough money to give his son the opportunity to go to school again instead of having to start work after the first basic education, like most children in the area. Philip Snowden was a good student and became a public employee in 1886. He held posts in Liverpool , the Orkney Islands , Aberdeen and Plymouth for the following years . In 1891, however, he suffered a back injury which, according to him, was the result of a bicycle accident, but possibly back tuberculosis . As a result, Snowden was disabled and forced to use crutches for the rest of his life. He had to end his public service career in 1893.

Commitment to socialism

Unable to continue his career, Snowden began to get even more involved in studies and politics. He read a lot of socialist literature, initially with the intention of pointing out the dangers of socialism and of working against it. After a while he became a staunch socialist instead and joined the Independent Labor Party (ILP) in 1895 . He became an outstanding spokesman for the ILP and very important to its organization in western Yorkshire . In 1898 he was elected to the leadership of the ILP and 1903-1906 he was its chairman.

It took him several years to convert from liberalism to socialism and he brought many of the views he had as a liberal with him to his new role as a socialist. He stuck to the economic principles of Gladstone's liberalism, the emphasis on balanced budgets and free trade , throughout his life. He believed, however, that socialism, meaning collective ownership of the means of production and state control of the economy, was necessary to eliminate inequality and abolish injustice in society.

For Snowden, socialism was a morally correct way of organizing society. In his speeches and writings he presented his ethical socialism and often followed Christian motives, e.g. E.g. 1903 in the popular publication The Christ that is to Be . Snowden saw socialism as a class interest and rejected the theory of class struggle . He was always skeptical of unions because he viewed them as organizations of limited self-interest.

Snowden married Ethel Annakin , a champion of women's suffrage , in 1905 . Snowden supported his wife's ideals and became a noted speaker at suffragette meetings and other public gatherings. His relationship with Ethel may have been a major cause of his becoming heavily involved in women's suffrage, after initially viewing it as an issue to be resolved along with workers' suffrage.

Member of Parliament

Snowden ran for the first time in 1900 in the constituency of Blackburn for parliament, but still without success. In the 1906 elections he won the constituency, becoming one of 29 MPs in the Labor Party that was formed from the Labor Representation Committee that year. The ILP continued to exist as a Labor-linked party, and Snowden was one of the "Big Four" in the leadership of the ILP, along with Keir Hardie , Ramsay MacDonald and Bruce Glasier . Together with these he left the leadership of the ILP in 1909 in connection with a controversy over the headstrong MP Victor Grayson , a socialist who was elected with the support of the ILP but refused to obey the rules of the Labor Party's parliamentary group. When the ILP Congress did not support the leadership in its tough line against Grayson, the "Big Four" understood this as a question of confidence and resigned from the leadership.

Philip Snowden's Christian-tinged ethical socialism was fairly typical of the leaders in the ILP during this early period, but in the new Labor Party, with its strong union base, this seemed more and more out of date.

Snowden wrote a lot on economic issues, and it has been suggested that his ideas were groundbreaking for then Treasury Secretary David Lloyd George when he drew up his famous radical budget in 1909 .

Snowden was very critical of the First World War , which broke out in 1914. He was not a strict pacifist , but he disapproved of militarism in general, saying that this war was unnecessary and benefiting the upper class at the expense of the workers. He actively supported conscientious objectors and led court cases in which conscientious objectors were treated unfairly in parliamentary debates. On February 23, 1916, he was the first MP to give a major speech in favor of a negotiated solution to the war. During this period Snowden was seen as a representative of the left wing within Labor, and he returned in 1916 to the leadership of the ILP, which had taken a stand against the war. The following year he was again chairman of the ILP.

Snowden was enthusiastic about the February Revolution in Russia in 1917, but very critical of the Bolshevik takeover and Lenin's Marxist ideology. His relationship with the Labor Party grew strained due to the support of the war by senior party spokesmen and the new statutes adopted in 1918, which decreased the influence of the ILP and increased that of the unions. He therefore turned against both the right wing of Labor and the left in the ILP, which had sympathy for communism. Snowden lost much of his influence in the ILP and left the presidency in 1920. Because of his resistance to the war, he was not re-elected in Blackburn in the 1918 elections.

Finance Minister in the first Labor government in 1924

In 1922 Snowden was re-elected to the House of Commons as representative for Colne Valley .

After the differences on the question of war within the Labor Party were resolved, the old leaders returned to their strong positions in the party. Snowden was the party's undisputed economic expert, and party leader Ramsay MacDonald appointed him shadow finance minister in 1923. When MacDonald became Prime Minister in January 1924, he made Snowden Chancellor of the Exchequer , Labor's first ever. He lowered some flat tax rates and abolished some tariffs, but otherwise did not have particularly radical policies. Snowden's top priority was “healthy public finances” and a return to pre-war economic policies with a balanced budget and the gold standard for the pound sterling . His budget was widely praised by liberals and conservatives as well as by its own party, which had great confidence in him and his economic expertise.

Snowden lost the post of Treasury Secretary after the 1924 election when the Conservative Party came back to power. For the following years he was shadow finance minister.

Finance minister again in 1929

After MacDonald's victory in the 1929 election , Snowden was again Secretary of the Treasury.

An important question for this new government was the international negotiations on German reparations . All the time since the Treaty of Versailles was signed, Snowden had opposed the harsh demands that the victorious powers made on Germany. He expressed the view that the reparations claims against Germany should be completely lifted. As Treasury Secretary, on the other hand, he saw it as his duty to collect a fair share for Britain while Germany was compelled to pay. According to the Young plan that an international committee had worked out, the demands on Germany were to be lowered. In order to win Italy and France over to the plan, the previous Conservative British government had offered to lower the proportion of reparations Britain was supposed to receive.

As Treasury Secretary, Snowden decided to fight this plan, which he believed was unfair to Britain. At a conference in The Hague in August 1929, the plan was expected to be adopted, but Snowden, who was part of the British negotiating delegation, ruled and caused a sensation with his undiplomatic manner. Snowden, who had no experience in foreign policy and international negotiations, stated from the start that the UK refused to compromise on the portion he had been awarded in previous treaties. He stood against Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson , who wanted to show a greater willingness to negotiate. The tactic worked and Snowden was able to get most of his demands through. Snowden's attitude was very well known in their home country, where he was worshiped as a great patriot and he nicknamed "Iron Chancellor" ( the Iron Chancellor was given).

Snowden's great popularity in his new role as a national hero did not last long. The economic advantage he had gained for Britain was not so great compared to the crisis that was to come. The Black Thursday on Wall Street hit in October 1929, shortly after the Hague conference. While some in the Labor Party, particularly the young Deputy Minister Oswald Mosley , called for expansionary fiscal policies to combat unemployment, Snowden adhered strictly to Gladstone's ideals of liberal economic policies. He was seen by many, both then and later, as the main opponent of a radical economic policy by the government to overcome the Great Depression , and as the one who blocked the proposal to introduce protectionist tariffs. The government fell apart in a short time because many ministers refused to accept Snowden's proposal to cut unemployment benefits while Snowden refused to accept a budget deficit.

Snowden retained the post of Treasury Secretary in the National Government that Ramsay MacDonald formed with Conservatives and Liberals in 1931. He was therefore expelled from the Labor Party, as were MacDonald and Jimmy Thomas . In the "National Government" ( National Government ) Snowden was able to push through a budget with cuts and tax increases. But in September 1931 he was reluctantly forced to abandon the gold standard, an important departure from the principles he had upheld until then.

Snowden decided not to run in the 1931 election. In the election he supported the national government coalition and attacked the Labor Party for what he said was irresponsible economic policy. His attacks on his former party comrades were seen by many as exaggerated and as a sign of his bitterness.

The last few years

Snowden was knighted on November 26, 1931 and received the title Viscount Snowden , of Ickornshaw, in the West Riding of the County of York . Within Labor, this was viewed by many as the hypocrisy of a man who formerly wanted to abolish the House of Lords . Snowden was then Lord Privy Seal until September 1932, when he resigned in protest against the introduction of imperial preference and protectionist tariffs. Free trade was a very important matter of principle for Snowden, and the government decision was the drop that broke the barrel for him.

From 1933 onwards, he was openly critical of the government, particularly Prime Minister MacDonald, and bitterly attacked MacDonald in his 1934 autobiography. In the 1935 election , Snowden supported the radical economic program promoted by liberal leader David Lloyd George, which included sharply increasing government spending but was responsibly funded, according to Snowden. He developed a personal friendship with Lloyd George and would certainly have liked to see closer cooperation between Labor and the Liberals, even if he did not publicly endorse it.

Philip Snowden died of a heart attack on May 15, 1937 after a long illness.

Political opinions

Snowden's political philosophy was an understanding of society that was optimistic about progress. He believed that socialism would develop naturally from capitalism . As capitalism develops, it demands more order and control. This should then pass into a state-controlled economy that takes into account the interests of society as a whole instead of the profits of individual people and groups. His thoughts on exactly how this development should take place were not particularly clear.

Central to Snowden's view of socialism was that the state, which respects the interests of society as a whole, should take on the great responsibility of transforming society and controlling the economy, and he therefore opposed the ideas of syndicalism and trade union socialism , a union-run economy and a worker-controlled industry.

He envisioned that socialist governments should gradually nationalize the most important industries and raw materials. You could start with the mines and the railroad and then move on to the banks and insurance companies. Snowden always saw this as a rather slow process that could not be carried out through a revolution or during a single term of office. Especially since the beginning of the 1920s, after he had strongly distanced himself from the revolutionary path of Bolshevism, he emphasized that a Labor government should act very carefully in socializing the economy. The first socialist administration was supposed to carry out only part of a socialization program. The voter could then vote in a general election on whether the program should continue, and successive governments could complete the socialization process.

For the first Labor government it was important to show the voters that they were not subverters and that they could lead a responsible economic policy. The economic policy that a Labor government could lead with this view was primarily to work for advanced capitalism, as a liberal government would have done. As finance minister, Snowden therefore also represented a liberal-economic policy, which placed the greatest emphasis on a balanced budget, free trade and a maintained gold standard.

Snowden's joining the MacDonald’s national coalition government was because his economic philosophy saw it as necessary to lower unemployment benefits rather than undershoot the budget. His ideas of responsible economic policy were more important to him than party membership. When the national government began to adopt protectionist policies, Snowden chose to resign.

The later view of Snowden's work is mostly colored by his part in what is viewed by Labor as treason - the fall of the Labor government and MacDonald's national government, which in practice became a Conservative government. However, his behavior does not seem to be based on opportunism, but on sticking to his principles. At the same time, after the split in the Labor Party, he was marked by bitterness towards his former party comrades, whom he accused of being cowards for not wanting to carry out the austerity measures he deemed necessary to save Britain's economy. His anger at Labor meant that he failed to see that his support for the national coalition government was helping to give the Conservatives an opportunity to begin implementing their protectionist program, which he opposed during much of his political life.

Miscellaneous

In 1930 Snowden caused a diplomatic uproar when he hit the table in a fit of anger and shouted: "This is grotesque and ridiculous!"

Individual evidence

1. ^ The London Gazette : No. 33775, p. 7658 , November 27, 1931.
2. ^ Andre Kostolany: The great Kostolany. P. 658
3. ^ RW Jepson: Clear Thinking. 1954.

bibliography

Books

• Socialism and the Drink Lobby , 1908
• The Living Wage , 1912
• Socialism and Syndicalism , 1913
• Labor and National Finance , 1920
• Labor and the New World , 1921, revised 1924
• An Autobiography (2 volume), 1934

Shorter fonts

• Individual under Socialism , 1903
• The Christ that is to be , 1903
• The Chamberlain Bubble , 1903
• Labor Politics (with Keir Hardie and David J. Shackleton), 1903
• The Industrial Muddle and the Way Out , circa 1901–1905
• Protection, Free Trade and Monopoly , 1904
• Facts for the Workers , 1904
• A Straight Talk to Ratepayers , 1906
• The Socialist Budget , 1907
• Old Age Pensions, This Year , 1907
• The New Workmen's Compensation Act Made Plain , 1907
• How to Get an Old Age Pension , 1908
• Socialism and Teetotalism , 1909
• Where is the Money to Come From: The Question Answered , 1909
• A Few Hints to Lloyd George , 1909
• In Defense of the Conciliation Bill , 1911
• The Dominant Issue , 1913
• A Plea for Peace , 1916
• Labor in Chains , 1917
• How to Pay for the War - Tax the Unearned Incomes of the Rich , 1916
• War and Peace , 1918
• Prospect and Retrospect , 1919
• Twenty Objections to Socialism , 1920
• Wages and Prices , 1920
• If Labor Rules , 1923
• The Big Business Budget , 1923 (criticizes the budget of the Conservative governments, based on Snowden's budget speech in the House of Commons)
• The Housewife's Budget , 1924 (Snowden's House speech on Labor's budget)
• The Rich Man's Budget , 1925 (Snowden's speech against Churchill's budget)
• Tory Government's Pitiable Confession of Incapacity: Labor's Rising Challenge , 1926
• Rising Challenge , 1926
• The Way to Industrial Peace , 1927
• The Faith of a Democrat , 1928
• Mr. Lloyd George's New Deal , 1935
• The General Election , 1935
• End this Colossal Waste: A Neglected Palliative to Unemployment , 1936

literature

• Colin Cross, Philip Snowden , 1966
• Keith Laybourn, Philip Snowden, a biography , 1988 ISBN 0-566-07017-0

Web links

Commons : Philip Snowden  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Philip Snowden - Biography by Gerald Schofield (Engl.)
• David James: "Our Philip", The Early Career of Philip Snowden.
• Newspaper article about Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

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New title created	Viscount Snowden 1931-1937	Title expired