Those who were present at the Holborn Town Hall last Tuesday will long remember the meeting. Although called at only five days' notice, and on an evening when rain fell heavily, the body of the great hall was full and people were seated in the gallery. But the most noteworthy feature of the meeting was the tone that pervaded it throughout, a tone of pure enthusiasm tempered by sadness for the loss which the Socialist movement in England has suffered.
After the S.D.F. choir had given "No Master," the chair was taken by H. M. Hyndman. He read a letter from Peter Kropotkin regretting his inability to be present through illness, and expressing his gladness at the calling of the meeting, and a telegram from Walter Crane, in which he said, "Poet, artist, craftsman, his noblest work was yet for Socialism." They met, Hyndman said, to commemorate the death of their friend and fellow-worker because, unfortunately, it was impossible, under the arrangements which were made, for the bulk of them who would gladly have shown their last deference to William Morris to be present on that sad occasion; and they came there—all of them—whatever differences might possibly separate them, with but one heart to express their sincere regret at having lost one of the noblest men and greatest geniuses of our time. They often said in the Socialist movement that whatever a man's talents might be, the humblest worker in the cause was on an equality with him, in that he gave as much as he could to our common cause. That was in a sense perfectly true; but under present conditions it would be simple hypocrisy to deny that when a man of such extraordinary abilities and of such great reputation among the people who did not agree with them, deliberately and of his own accord, threw himself, at a time when it was not only not respectable but disreputable, they owed his memory a great debt of gratitude. And they knew that he gave himself to it with a full heart—that he was ready to do anything—to speak at street corners, to sell papers in the Strand, and no nobler and humbler thing was ever done. There was a note of triumph in their sorrow, for William Morris, had done something to consecrate Socialism not only as a hope of the poor and lowly, but as the cause of the artist, the man of genius and the thinker. He worked for no gas and water Socialism, but for the overthrow of the hateful system which degrades and embitters mankind. Great as his work was in literature and art, greater still was that which he did for fourteen years for the glory and advancement of the coming Social Revolution.
Andreas Scheu moved "That this meeting deeply regrets the death of the man of genius and noble character, William Morris, whose services to Socialism, as well as to art and literature, can never be forgotten, and desires to convey to his relatives its sincere sympathy with them in their sad bereavement." He had never felt such difficulty in speaking at a public meeting as he did to-night. He could not get Morris's face from his eyes since his had been closed. He said that the Socialists in England must be very grateful for having had this man in their ranks, for he, who stood very near William Morris, especially at the beginning of the movement, had never seen a more beautiful character. Scheu spoke of Morris's dislike of political methods, and the old Socialist League was an attempt on his part to carry on the propaganda of Socialism without dabbling in politics; but he came to see that they had to attack the state of things as it is. The closing of Trafalgar Square and the destruction of the Socialist League convinced him that they must take part in political methods. He absolutely denied what had appeared in the press that Morris had grown less revolutionary, and had become fond of temporising and compromising. A life like that of Morris's gave the lie to those who contended that in the upward movement of the human race enthusiasm was of no account.
Space will not permit anything like a full report of the speeches. All who followed spoke exceedingly well, though manifestly the flow of language was checked by visible emotion. H. Quelch, who seconded the resolution, laid stress on the fulness of Morris's life, and the fact that, although they felt exceedingly bitter against those who left the S.D.F. at the split of 1884, they were not able to feel that bitterness towards Morris. Morris's work for Socialism was a standing reproach to many who belong to the class which will most benefit by the Socialist movement.
R. B. Cunninghame Graham said there were some men one lived beside all one's life, and they left but small impression upon one. Others impress themselves so much upon us that it was like a photograph. Of the latter the most remarkable man he had met was William Morris. It struck him, when comparing a man like Morris with the leaders of parties throughout the world, that the loss they have sustained by his death was not only of the poet, craftsman and Socialist, but of the man who perhaps was best calculated to make them forget differences and join together for one common cause. Cunninghame Graham continued speaking for a few moments, but his emotion was too great and he was compelled to sit down.
J. E. Williams recounted various incidents of Morris's work in the early days of the movement, the meetings he had addressed in streets and places which must have been most distasteful to him. He was man whom all the workmen in the movement at the time learned to respect and admire. He always felt at home with Morris, and he did not know a middleclass man in whose company he felt so much at his ease as he had done with William Morris. Morris never minded what time and trouble he spent on Socialism. He had known him waste four days in a week at the Old Bailey waiting to be called upon as witness, and he was always ready and willing to bail out anyone arrested for speaking on behalf of Socialism.
Further speeches were given by A. C. Muncey (Hammersmith Socialist Society), G. Lansbury, and Herbert Burrows, and the resolution was put and carried, not by show of hands, but the complete and almost painful silence of the meeting.
In Memory of Morris - Meeting at Holborn Town Hall
Anonymous
Justice, 17th October 1896
Graham Seaman, September 2020.