into existence in Parliament, on independent lines,
with its own whips and its own policy.

The group steadily increased in numbers. After
the general election of 1910 the Labour Group num-
bered forty-two in the House of Commons, and were
consequently on a narrow division by no means a
negligible quantity. But it was not yet a national
political party capable of challenging the two great
historic parties on their own ground. Not a party
at all in the accepted sense of the word. It was still
a mere Federation of Labour and Socialist Societies.
"As the war wore on," writes Mr. Arthur Hender-
son, its present Secretary and virtual political leader,
in recounting its most recent developments, "we were
led to see that if Labour is to take its part in creating
the new order of Society, it must address itself to the
task of transforming its political organization from
a federation of societies into a national popular
party, rooted in the life of the democracy, and de-
riving its principles and its policy from the new
political consciousness."

That task of reconstruction and re-organization is
not yet completed, but its main principles are already
pretty clearly indicated. Mr. Henderson says:

"The outline of the new party constitution is now
familiar to every attentive reader of the newspapers.
It contemplates the creation of a national democratic
party, founded upon the organized working-class

-54-