702 Ch. 1 8 • The Dominant Powers in the Age of Liberalism

(Left) Ben Tillett, organizer of the Docker’s Union. (Right) James Keir Hardie,

founder of the Independent Labour Party.

dream. Strikes in 1897—1898 (including Britain’s first national walkout,

which ended in the workers’ defeat) revealed the growing reach of the new

unions.

The state went on the offensive against the unions. In 1901, in resolving

a railway case in Wales, the Taff Vale decision of the House of Lords made

unions and their officers legally responsible for losses sustained by compa­

nies during strikes. This encouraged the creation of the Labour Party. First

organized in 1900 (taking its name in 1906), the Labour Party had its ori­

gins in the small Independent Labour Party, which had been founded in

1893 by MP James Keir Hardie (1856—1915). This rough-hewn Scottish

miner had provoked the House of Commons by chiding members for send­

ing a congratulatory message to the queen on the birth of a great-grandson

instead of a message of condolence to the families of several hundred min­

ers killed in an accident in a mine shaft in Wales. The Labour Party now

vowed to represent workers in Parliament and specifically to bring about

the repeal of the Taff Vale decision.

A split within the Liberal-Unionist-Conservative bloc brought ten years

of Conservative government to an end. Some political leaders, including

Joseph Chamberlain, campaigned for protective tariffs, believing that they

would increase British prosperity by creating a large imperial market. Many

Conservatives, including Prime Minister Arthur Balfour (1848-1930),

believed that voters preferred traditional free trade policies, identified with