The Socialist begs you to form a party of your own, and to do your work yourselves; and you call him a _dreamer_. I do not know whether the working man is a dreamer, but he seems to me to spend a good deal of his time asleep. Still, there are hopeful signs of an awakening. The recent decision of the miners to pay one shilling each a year into a fund for securing parliamentary and other representation, is one of the most hopeful signs I have yet seen. The matter is really a simple one. The workers have enough votes, and they can easily find enough money. The 2,000,000 of Trade Unionists could alone find the money to elect and support more than a hundred labour representatives. Say that election expenses for each candidate were L500. A hundred candidates at L500 would cost L50,000. Pay for each representative at L200 a year would cost for a hundred M.P.s L20,000. If 2,000,000 Unionists gave 1s. a year each, the sum would be L100,000. That would pay for the election of 100 members, keep them for a year, and leave a balance of L30,000. With a hundred Labour Members in Parliament, and a proportionate representation of Labour on all County Councils, City, Borough, and Parish Councils, School Boards and Boards of Guardians, the interests of the workers would begin, for the first time in our history, to receive some real and valuable attention. But not only is it desirable that the workers should strive for solid reforms, but it is also imperative that they should prepare to defend the liberties and rights they have already won. A man must be very careless or very obtuse if he does not perceive that the classes are preparing to drive the workers back from the positions they now hold. Two ominous words, "Conscription" and "Protection" are being freely bandied about, and attacks, open or covert, are being made upon Trade Unionism and Education. If the workers mean to hold their own they must attack as well as defend. And to attack they need a strong and united Labour Party, that will fight for Labour in and out of Parliament, and will stand for Labour apart from the Liberal and the Tory parties. And now let us see what the Liberal and Tory parties offer the worker, and why they are not to be trusted. CHAPTER XVIII WHY THE OLD PARTIES WILL NOT DO The old parties are no use to Labour for two reasons:-- 1. Because their interests are mostly opposed to the interests of Labour. 2. Because such reform as they promise is mostly political, and the kind of reform needed by Labour is industrial and social reform. Liberal and Tory politicians call us Socialists _dreamers_. They claim to be practical men. They say theories are no use, that reform can only be secured by practical men and practical means, and for practical men and practical means you must look to the great parties.