Or perhaps it was the other way
round. Logical consistency is usually incompatible with political
success: compromise runs smooth, whilst principle jams. But the lesser
sort of critic, on the look out for a grievance, can always apply a
principle to a compromise, point out that it does not fit, and that
difficulties may arise. In the case in question they have in fact rarely
arisen, and such as have occurred have been easily surmounted. It is not
necessary to record here all the proposals put forward from time to time
that the Society should disaffiliate from the Labour Party, or on the
other hand, that it should expel, directly or indirectly, all members
who did not confine their political activities to co-operating with the
Labour Party. It may be assumed that one or other of these proposals was
made every few years after the Labour Party was constituted, and that in
every case it was defeated, as a rule, by a substantial majority.
The Labour Party won three remarkable victories in the period between
the General Election of 1900 and that of 1906. In 1902 Mr. David
Shackleton was returned unopposed for a Liberal seat, the Clitheroe
Division of Lancashire; in 1903 Mr. (now the Right Hon.) Will Crooks, an
old member of our Society, captured Woolwich from the Conservatives by a
majority of 3229, amidst a scene of enthusiasm which none who were
present will ever forget: and five months later Mr.
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