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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
England's first important socialist organization was the Social-Democratic Federation. During the eighteen-eighties this organisation was in the forefront of the socialist movement. It came to present an extreme and dogmatic socialism. But it is curious to recall that in origin the organization was not socialist. Although it had a few socialist members, it had no socialist program. The leader of the S.D.F., the wealthy Cambridge University graduate, the formerly pro-Tory journalist, H. M. Hyndman, is always associated with the growth and development of this organization. Yet it has not been recognized that in the very early days of the S.D.F. there was no certainty that Hyndman would hold the reins. Our aim in this essay is twofold: I. to detail the non-socialist beginnings of the S.D.F. and 2. to indicate Hyndman's connection with the new organization. The story of the formation of the S.D.F. – at first called the Democratic Federation – has never been told in its entirety. We will relate what happened at the first meetings. We will show how Hyndman came to gain control and how the Member of Parliament from Newcastle, Joseph Cowen, who could have been the leader, was superseded.
page 199 note 1 The name was changed to the Social-Democratic Federation in 1884.
page 199 note 2 In the official history of the Social-Democratic Federation H. W. Lee writes, “What took place before the formal establishment of the Democratic Federation is not very clear.” Lee, H. W. and Archbold, E., Social-Democracy in Britain (London, 1935), p. 44Google Scholar. Lee then makes mistakes in his attempt to guess what happened. The account of the meetings given in Morrison Davidson, J., The Annals of Toil, pt. 4 (London, [1898]), pp. 435–436Google Scholar is garbled; Davidson has confounded the happenings of two separate meetings into one. His evidence is untrustworthy although suggestive. In practically every history of the English socialist movement there is scant mention of the founding meetings, often derived from Hyndman's recollections, The Record of an Adventurous Life (London, 1911). The best attempt to reconstruct what occurred before the founding conference is made in Pelling, Henry, The Origins of the Labour Party (London, 1954), pp. 16–18Google Scholar. We are indebted to Dr. Pelling's suggestions in this book.
page 200 note 1 No historian of the Social-Democratic Federation has noted that there were three key meetings before the founding conference.
page 200 note 2 Letter from Hyndman, H. M. to Marx, Karl, February 28, 1881Google Scholar, Marx Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.
page 200 note 3 Hyndman, op cit., p. 273.
page 200 note 4 James and Charles Murray, “Bill” Morgan, John Townsend, and Oliver, ibid., p. 246.
page 200 note 5 The club had English, French, and German sections.
page 200 note 6 The Radical, March 5, 1881, p. 3.
page 200 note 7 Daily Telegraph, July 19,1881, p. 3; Pall Mall Gazette, July 19,1881, p. 7.
page 200 note 8 Pall Mall Gazette, loc. cit.
page 200 note 9 The Echo, March 3, 1881, p. 3.
page 200 note 10 ibid., and The Radical, March 5, 1881, p. 3. See also letter from Hyndman to Marx, op.cit., for Cowen's willingness to assist.
page 201 note 1 Among the clubs represented were the Marylebone Radical Club, Land Nationalisation Society, London Society of Compositors, Tower Hamlets Radical Club, King's Cross Radical Club, Social Democratic Club, Lambeth Democratic Association, and Battersea Liberal Club. See Daily News, March 7, 1881, p. 2.
page 201 note 2 Daily News, March 7, 1881, p. 2.
page 201 note 3 ibid.
page 201 note 4 ibid. This speech goes to substantiate Dr. Pelling's thesis that the Democratic Federation may “be regarded as the product of a reaction against the Chamberlain caucuses.” Pelling, op.cit., p. 18.
page 201 note 5 Daily News, loc.cit. and Anon., Williams, John and the Early History of the Social Democratic Federation (London, 1886), p. 3.Google Scholar
page 201 note 6 Daily News, loc.cit.
page 201 note 7 ibid.
page 201 note 8 The Echo, March 7, 1881, p. 2.
page 201 note 9 The Radical, March 12, 1881, p. 2.
page 201 note 10 See letter from Butler-Johnstone, Paris, to Marx, Karl, March 7, 1881Google Scholar, Marx Papers, Int. Inst. Soc. Hist., Amsterdam.
page 201 note 11 The Radical, March 12, 1881, p. 2. The other members of the committee were Lord, Dunn, Devenish, and Garcia. In The Radical the list reads “… Butler, Johnstone…” We presume this is a typographical error for Butler-Johnstone. There was, however, a Butler, an Anarchist, who became a member of the Democratic Federation Executive Committee. Perhaps he is referred to on the committee list?
page 202 note 1 Hyndman throughout his period of leadership was continually alienating those whom he should have attracted. William Clarke wrote of Hyndman: “Many think him a humbug and a ‘bad lot’.” Letter to Lloyd, Henry Demarest, October 22, 1884Google Scholar, Henry Demarest Lloyd Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wise. John Burns wrote of “Hyndman's egoism and jealousy.” Diary entry for October 2, 1888, Burns Papers, Add. Ms. 46310, British Museum.
page 202 note 2 We find this hard to attribute to oversight. The Radical knew that the meeting was occurring because in its issue of March 19, p. I, it announced the meeting. And later, The Echo's extraordinarily scant coverage of the June 8 th founding conference which was widely reported elsewhere would indicate a lack of Radical interest.
page 202 note 3 The only complete report that we have found of this meeting is in the Daily News, March 21, 1881, p. 3. Our comments on this meeting are based on this report qualified by reference to other sources.
page 202 note 4 It may, however, have been mentioned at an earlier meeting and just not reported, for the Land Nationalisation Society sent a delegate to the second meeting.
page 202 note 5 See, for instance, Beer, M., History of British Socialism (2 vols., London, 1921), II, p. 247.Google Scholar
page 202 note 6 Beesly's opposition to setting up a new party, reported in the Daily News, is confirmed by J. Morrison Davidson, op. cit., p. 435, although Davidson confuses the meeting at which Beesly made this statement. It is likewise noted in Williams, John and the Early History of the S.D.F., p. 3Google Scholar. Beesly is often mistakenly referred to as a founder of the S.D.F. (See for instance Labour Annual, 1897, p. 222), wherein in actuality he only participated in the founding meetings.
page 203 note 1 Reynolds's Newspaper, June 12, 1881, p. 2.
page 203 note 2 St. Gazette, James's, June 9, 1881, p. 7Google Scholar; The Times, June 9, 1881, p. 6; and The Echo June 9, 1881, p. 3.
page 203 note 3 Daily News, June 9, 1881, p. 2.
page 203 note 4 Reynolds's Newspaper, loc. cit. Identification of Tyler's locality appears in Daily Telegraph, June 9, 1881, p. 5.
page 203 note 5 Unsigned leader by Morrison Davidson, J., The New Party, in: Weekly Dispatch, June 12, 1881, p. 9Google Scholar. Morrison Davidson identifies this leader as his own in his The Annals of Toil, pt. 4, p. 435.
page 204 note 1 Hyndman, , England for All (London, Gilbert & Rivington, June, 1881), p. 93.Google Scholar
page 204 note 2 Reynolds's Newspaper, loc. cit.
page 204 note 3 Forty-two years later Andreas Scheu in his memoirs singled out Miss Helen Taylor's speech on this subject for mention. Scheu, A., Umsturzkeime – Dritter Teil: Auf Freiem Boden (Vienna, 1923), pp. 46–47.Google Scholar
page 204 note 4 So he was reported as saying by Davidson, The New Party, loc.cit.
page 204 note 5 Davidson, , The Annals of Toil, pt. 4, p. 435Google Scholar. This story without names is confirmed in Hyndman, Record of an Adventurous Life, p. 250.
page 204 note 6 See Gazette, Pall Mall, June 9, 1881, p. 8Google Scholar for listing of all points adopted.
page 204 note 7 Hyndman, , England for All, June, 1881 edition, pp. 30Google Scholar, 96, and 112–130.
page 204 note 8 Hyndman had advocated Equal Electoral Districts, Payment of Members, and Bribery at elections to be made a felony. But he urged manhood rather than adult suffrage and triennial rather than annual parliaments. ibid., pp. 93 and 91.
page 205 note 1 ibid., p. 110.
page 205 note 2 ibid., p. 107.
page 205 note 3 Pall Mall, Gazette, September 8, 1881, p. 4.Google Scholar
page 205 note 4 ibid.
page 205 note 5 He is described in these terms in Davidson, , Annals of Toil, pt. 4, p. 435.Google Scholar
page 205 note 6 Duncan, William, Life of Joseph Cowen (London, 1904), p. 91.Google Scholar
page 205 note 7 Davidson, , Annals of Toil, pt. 4, p. 435.Google Scholar
page 206 note 1 Pelling, op.cit., p. 22.
page 206 note 2 See Duncan, op. cit., and Jones, E. R., The Life and Speeches of Joseph Cowen, M.P. (London, 1885).Google Scholar
page 206 note 3 The cheap edition was published by Allen, E. W. in September, 1881Google Scholar. Gilbert & Rivington also put out a second edition in September. The pagination of the two is the same.
page 206 note 4 We are much indebted to Mr. F. Kool, Editorial Secretary of this Review, for pointing out the differences between the June edition of England for All and the September editions.
page 206 note 5 England for All (September editions), pp. 30n and I3O.
page 206 note 6 See letter from H.M. Hyndman, London, to Miss Taylor, Helen, October 2, 1881Google Scholar, in Mill-Taylor Papers, British Library of Political and Economic Science. - Our italics.
page 206 note 7 See p. 5 above.
page 206 note 8 i.e. in [Davidson], “The New Party,” op. cit.
page 206 note 9 Hyndman, H. M., Dawn of a Revolutionary Epoch in: The Nineteenth Century, IX (January 1881), p. 5.Google Scholar
page 206 note 10 Chapters II and III.
page 207 note 1 England for All (June, 1881 edition), p. 86.
page 207 note 2 See letter from H. M. Hyndman, London, to Miss Taylor, Helen, October 2, 1881Google Scholar, in Mill-Taylor Papers.
page 207 note 3 Lee and Archbold, op.cit., p. 53.s
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