Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden
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Philip Snowden Viscount Snowden of Ickornshaw
(born July 18, 1864, Ickornshaw, Yorkshire, Eng.died May 15, 1937, Tilford, Surrey) British politician. From 1893 he was a lecturer and writer for the socialist Independent Labour Party (ILP), then became its leader (190306). In the House of Commons (190618, 192231), he excelled in debates on social and economic questions. He served as chancellor of the Exchequer in James Ramsay MacDonald's governments (1924, 192931) and in 1931 secured Britain's abandonment of the gold standard.
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Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden
Oxford Dictionary of Political Biography:
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Philip Snowden
(b. Yorkshire, 18 July 1864; d. 15 May 1937) British; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1924 and 1929 – 31 The son of a weaver, Snowden received only an elementary education. After clerical jobs, he became editor of a socialist newspaper. His skills as a propagandist were significant in the development first of the Independent Labour Party and then of the Labour Representation Committee (later Labour Party). He sat on the National Administrative Committee of the ILP for many years and was twice its chairman (1903 – 6 and 1917 – 20). However, he resigned from the ILP in 1927 in protest at its alleged extremism.
After entering the House of Commons as member for Blackburn in 1906 Snowden established a reputation as an expert on public finance. His opposition to the First World War resulted in electoral defeat in 1918, but he re-entered parliament in 1922. His first ministerial post was the chancellorship of the Exchequer in the first Labour government (1924). His cautious policy incurred criticism from Labour's left wing, but he shared Ramsay MacDonald's determination to prove Labour "fit to govern" by financial orthodoxy. He pursued the same line in the second Labour government (1929 – 31), but the policy exacerbated the economic depression and the unemployment problem.
In August 1931, Snowden was one of the few ministers to join MacDonald's national government when the Labour government collapsed. He continued as Chancellor and, after an emergency budget making further expenditure cuts, was compelled to respond to continuing pressure on sterling by suspending the gold standard. This was his final major decision as Chancellor. He did not contest the general election in October and went to the House of Lords as Lord Privy Seal. Early in 1932, differences arose over the introduction of a protectionist trade policy and Snowden was one of four "free traders" whose resignations were averted only by the Cabinet's unprecedented adoption of an "agreement to differ". This proved only a temporary solution to the government's internal tensions and they resigned eight months later over imperial trade preference. Out of office, Snowden became an outspoken critic of the government and of MacDonald personally, though he never rejoined the Labour Party from which he and other Labour members joining the national government had been expelled. His two-volume An Autobiography (1937) is a useful account of the formative years of the Labour Party.
Oxford Dictionary of British History:
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Philip Snowden
Snowden, Philip (1864-1937). Labour politician. Snowden came from Yorkshire weaving stock, but managed to obtain a junior post in the civil service. He joined the Independent Labour Party, of which he became (1903-6 and 1917-20) national chairman, entering Parliament in 1906 as MP for Blackburn, later representing Colne Valley. During the 1920s his revolutionary ardour dimmed; he opposed the General Strike (1926) and resigned from the ILP the following year. Snowden's grasp of fiscal matters led to his appointment as chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour governments of 1924 and 1929-31, but far from pursuing a socialist economic policy he revealed himself as a devotee of the balanced budget. Following the collapse of the minority Labour government in 1931, Snowden joined Ramsay MacDonald's National Government, retaining his Exchequer portfolio, but the following year (by then a viscount) he resigned on the issue of free trade.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Philip Snowden
Snowden, Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount (snō'dən), 1864-1937, British statesman. Born to poverty, he was a civil service clerk until crippled by a spinal ailment. Resigning in 1893, he began to work for the Independent Labour party (ILP). He was twice (1903-6, 1917-20) chairman of the party, but resigned in 1927 in favor of the Labour party proper as a protest against what he considered the revolutionary tendencies of the ILP. He belonged to the pacifist minority of the socialist group during World War I. Snowden served in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1918 and from 1922 until 1931. As an acknowledged specialist in finance, he became chancellor of the exchequer in the Labour ministries formed by Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929. He won popularity by his refusal to accept a reduction in the British share of German reparations in the Young Plan (1929). However, his rigidly orthodox financial measures, including the maintenance of free trade and balanced budgets, were insufficient to stem the growing economic depression. Snowden remained chancellor in the national government of 1931 and announced (1931) the suspension of the gold standard. Created Viscount Snowden of Ickornshaw in 1931, he served (1931-32) as lord privy seal but resigned when free trade was abandoned.
Bibliography
See his autobiography (1934); biography by K. Laybourne (1988).
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Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden
"Lord Snowden" redirects here. For another spelling, see Earl of Snowdon. For Baron of Snaudon, see Duke of Edinburgh.
| The Right Honourable The Viscount Snowden PC |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office 7 June 1929 – 5 November 1931 |
|
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | Winston Churchill |
| Succeeded by | Neville Chamberlain |
| In office 22 January 1924 – 3 November 1924 |
|
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | Neville Chamberlain |
| Succeeded by | Winston Churchill |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 July 1864 Cowling, Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 15 May 1937 (aged 72) Tilford, Surrey, England |
| Political party | Labour Party (c. 1894-1931) National Labour (1931-1932) None (1932-1937) |
| Spouse(s) | Ethel Annakin (1881-1951) |
Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden PC (18 July 1864 – 15 May 1937) was a British politician and the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, a position he held in 1924 and again between 1929 and 1931.
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Early life: 1864–1906
Snowden was born in Cowling in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His father John Snowden (1830/1 – 1889) had been a weaver and a supporter of Chartism and then a Gladstonian liberal. Snowden later wrote in his autobiography: "I was brought up in this Radical atmosphere, and it was then that I imbibed the political and social principles which I have held fundamentally ever since".[1]
In August 1891 Philip Snowden became ill and was paralysed from the waist down. He learned to walk again with the aid of sticks within two years.[2]
Snowden joined the Liberal Party and followed his parents in becoming a Methodist and a teetotaller. In 1893 Snowden was asked to give a speech for the Cowling Liberal Club on the dangers of socialism in the aftermath of the formation of the Independent Labour Party. In his research on socialism Snowden instead became convinced by the ideology. He eventually joined the executive committee of the Keighley ILP in 1899 and went on to Chair the ILP 1903-06.[2] He became a prominent speaker for the party and wrote a popular Christian socialist pamphlet with Keir Hardie entitled The Christ that is to Be in 1903.[citation needed]
In 1905, Snowden married Ethel Annakin, a campaigner for women's suffrage. Snowden supported his wife's ideals and he became a noted speaker at suffragette meetings and other public meetings.[citation needed]
Member of Parliament: 1906–1924
In 1906 he became the Labour Party MP for Blackburn.[3][4] He also wrote extensively on economics, advocating more radical measures than the ruling Liberals were implementing, and he devised his own "Socialist budget" to rival David Lloyd George's 1909 "People's Budget".[2]
Snowden was in Australia on a worldwide lecture tour when the First World War broke out in August 1914; he did not return to Britain until February 1915. He was not a pacifist but he did not support recruiting for the armed forces and he campaigned against conscription. His stance was unpopular with the public and he lost his seat in the 1918 general election.[2] In 1922 he was elected to represent Colne Valley.[5][6]
Chancellor of the Exchequer: 1924
Upon Ramsay MacDonald's appointment as Prime Minister in January 1924 Snowden was appointed as the Labour Party's first ever Chancellor of the Exchequer[7] and sworn of the Privy Council.[8]
In his budget Snowden lowered the duties on tea, coffee, cocoa, chicory and sugar; reduced spending on armaments; provided money for council housing but did not implement the capital levy. Snowden claimed that because of the lowering of duties on foodstuffs consumed by the working class that the budget went "far to realize the cherished radical idea of a free breakfast table".[9] A. J. P. Taylor has written that this budget "would have delighted the heart of Gladstone".[10]
Opposition: 1924–1929
Although he had Chaired the ILP for a second time, from 1917 to 1920, Snowden resigned from the party in 1927 because he believed it was "drifting more and more away from...evolutionary socialism into revolutionary socialism". He was also opposed to the new Keynesian economic ideas and criticised its expression in the Liberals' manifesto for the 1929 election, titled We can Conquer Unemployment.[2]
Chancellor of the Exchequer: 1929–1931
Snowden was again appointed Chancellor after Labour formed a government in 1929 after emerging as the largest party in the general election.[11] His economic philosophy was one of strict Gladstonian Liberalism rather than socialism. His official biographer wrote that "He was raised in an atmosphere which regarded borrowing as an evil and free trade as an essential ingredient of prosperity".[citation needed]
He was considered by many at the time and since as being the principal opposition to the government following any radical economic policy to tackle the Great Depression as well as blocking proposals to introduce protectionist tariffs. The government eventually collapsed over arguments about a budget deficit amidst refusals by a significant minority of ministers to enact cuts in unemployment benefit.[citation needed]
Snowden retained the position of Chancellor during the National Government of 1931. As a consequence he was expelled from the party, along with MacDonald and Jimmy Thomas. In a BBC radio broadcast on 16 October 1931 he called Labour's policies "Bolshevism run mad" and contrasted them unfavourably with his own "sane and evolutionary Socialism". Snowden decided not to stand for parliament in the election of November 1931.[citation needed]
Later life: 1931–1934
He was instead raised to the peerage as Viscount Snowden, of Ickornshaw in the West Riding of the County of York,[12] and served as Lord Privy Seal from 1931[13] to 1932 when he resigned in protest at the enactment of a full scheme of Imperial Preference and protectionist tariffs. In 1932 Snowden said there was never a greater mistake than to say that Cobdenism was dead: "Cobdenism was never more alive throughout the world than it was to-day...To-day the ideas of Cobden were in revolt against selfish nationalism. The need for the breaking down of trade restrictions, which took various forms, was universally recognized even by those who were unable to throw off those shackles".[14]
He subsequently wrote his Autobiography in which he strongly attacked MacDonald. In the 1935 general election, Snowden supported the Keynesian economic programme proposed by Lloyd George ("Lloyd George's New Deal"), despite it being a complete repudiation of Snowden's own record. Snowden claimed that he was returning to long-held economic views but that these had been "temporarily inadvisable" during the crisis of 1931 when "national necessity" demanded cutting public expenditure.[2]
Lord Snowden died on 15 May 1937, aged 72. The viscountcy died with him. Lady Snowden died in February 1951, aged 69.
Notes
- ^ Philip, Viscount Snowden, An Autobiography. Volume One. 1864-1919 (London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson, 1934), p. 19.
- ^ a b c d e f Duncan Tanner, ‘Snowden, Philip, Viscount Snowden (1864–1937)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011, accessed 1 July 2011.
- ^ London Gazette: no. 27885. p. 1038. 13 February 1906.
- ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Bethnal Green to Blyth Valley
- ^ London Gazette: no. 32775. p. 8712. 8 December 1922.
- ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Clonmel to Cork County West
- ^ London Gazette: no. 32901. p. 770. 25 January 1924.
- ^ London Gazette: no. 32901. p. 769. 25 January 1924.
- ^ Time, Labor's Budget, 12 May 1924
- ^ A. J. P. Taylor, English History, 1914-1945 (Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 212.
- ^ London Gazette: no. 33508. p. 4106. 21 June 1929.
- ^ London Gazette: no. 33775. p. 7658. 27 November 1931.
- ^ London Gazette: no. 33772. p. 7409. 17 November 1931.
- ^ The Times (8 July 1932), p. 9.
References
- Philip, Viscount Snowden, An Autobiography. Volume One. 1864-1919 (London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson, 1934).
- Philip, Viscount Snowden, An Autobiography. Volume Two. 1919-1934 (London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson, 1934).
- Duncan Tanner, ‘Snowden, Philip, Viscount Snowden (1864–1937)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011, accessed 1 July 2011.
Further reading
- Colin Cross, Philip Snowden (Barrie & Jenkins, 1966).
- Keith Laybourn and David James (eds.), Philip Snowden. The First Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer (Bradford Arts, Museums and Libraries Service, 1987).
- Keith Laybourn, Philip Snowden. A Biography, 1864–1937 (Dartmouth Publishing, 1988).
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden |
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Philip Snowden
- Philip Snowden - Blackburn Labour Party
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