de of radicalism
was running high seven of its candidates and sixteen of its members
were elected to the House of Commons.

*173. The Labor Party To-day.*--The Independent Labor Party has been
throughout its history avowedly socialistic. It has sought and
obtained the adherence of thousands of laboring men, some of whom are,
and some of whom are not, socialists. But its character is too radical
to attract the mass of trade-union members and alongside it there has
grown up a larger and broader organization known simply as the Labor
Party. A trade-union congress held at London in September, 1899, (p. 166)
caused to be brought together an assemblage of representatives of all
co-operative, trade-union, socialist, and working-class organizations
which were willing to share in an effort to increase the representation
of labor in Parliament. This body held its first meeting at London in
February, 1900, and an organization was formed in which the ruling
forces were the politically inclined but non-socialistic trade-unions.
The object of the affiliation was asserted to be "to establish a
distinct labor group in Parliament, who shall have their own whips,
and agree upon their own policy, which must embrace a readiness to
co-operate with any party which for the time being may be engaged in
promoting legislation in the direct interest of labor." The growth of
the organization was rapid, and in 1906 the name which had been
employed, i.e., Labor Representation Committee, gave place to that of
Labor Party. At the elections of 1906 twenty-nine of the fifty-one
candidates of this party were chosen to the House of Commons. Taking
into account eleven members connected with miners' organizations and
fourteen others who were Independent Laborites or Liberal Laborites
("Lib.-Labs."), the parliament chosen in 1906 contained a labor
contingent aggregating fifty-four members. Since 1908 there has been
in progress a consolidation of the labor forces represented at
Westminster and, although at the elections of 1910 some seats were
lost, there are in the House of Commons to-day forty-two labor
representatives. The entire group is independent of, but friendly
toward, the Liberal Government; and since the Liberals stand in
constant need of Labor support, its power in legislation is altogether
disproportioned to its numbers.[238]

[Footnote 238: Two satisfactory volumes on the
political activities of labor in