[Sidenote: Hull Again.]
This was not the only victory which Labour was able to win in the course
of this week. The House presented a very notable spectacle on May 4th.
It was only by the aid of the Irish members, it is true, that Mr.
Havelock Wilson was able to get the necessary forty to procure the
adjournment of the House for the discussion of the Hull strike; but
then, when Mr. Wilson was enabled to bring the subject before the House,
he was listened to with an attention almost painful in its seriousness
and gravity. Nothing, indeed, shows more plainly the vast social and
political changes of our time, than this transformation in the attitude
of the House of Commons towards labour questions. There was a time--even
in our own memory--when such a question as the strike at Hull would have
been promptly ruled out of order; and when the workmen who rose to call
attention to it would have been coughed or even hooted down; and he
would be certain to receive very rough treatment from the Tory party.
The Tory party still remains the party of the monopolists and the
selfish, but it has learned that household suffrage means a considerable
weapon in the hands of working men, and, accordingly, though it may put
its tongue in its cheek, it keeps that tongue very civil whenever it
begins to utter opinion.
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