t was put
forward then, that the restriction of the hours of labour would ruin
our industries. Precisely the same argument was put forward when it
was proposed to put a stop to the terrible over-work of the children
deep down in the bowels of the earth. Women and children were
mercilessly driven by brutal overseers at their task, and this was
maintained by your Liberal party in order that they might obtain large
profits out of their white slaves. Only let the Liberal party appeal
to history in its claim for working-class support, and then the
working class will arrive at the conclusion to which many of us have
already come--that the Liberal party, so far from being entitled to
our support, is entitled to our greatest loathing and hatred."[629]
"As to the Factory Acts, it was not a question of Messrs. Bright and
Cobden alone, but of the whole organised body of the Liberal party,
which opposed the Factory Acts, and they were only carried by the
hostility of the Tory party to the Liberals for having dared to
interfere with the Corn Laws. The Factory Acts were passed in
retaliation by the landlord party against the capitalist party."[630]

"Mr. Gladstone was the only member who endeavoured to delay the Bill
which delivered women and children from mines and pits; and never did
he say a word on behalf of the factory children until, when defending
slavery in the West Indies, he taunted Buxton with indifference to the
slavery in England."[631] "If I were to draw a comparison between the
Liberal and the Tory parties, I should say that the Tory party has
done more in that direction than the Liberal party has done."[632] Mr.
Blatchford wrote in the "Clarion" that "the Liberal party has never
helped the trade unions," and proved this assertion by giving a
detailed statement of the trade union legislation, which showed that
modern trade unionism was constantly opposed by the Liberals and was
created by the Conservatives.[633]

In consequence of its record, Socialists see in Liberalism not a friend,
but an enemy. "Liberalism stands for individualism, and the Liberal
capitalist and trader are bitterly opposed to the trade union and
co-operative society. They found that these bodies, however, were
beginning to exercise an important, if indirect, influence upon their
party. Liberal leaders, alive to the importance of vote-catching, began
to angle for the support of the working-class organisations."[634] "We
have no reason for supporti