Joseph Arch: Reformer
Sherren, Wilkinson
157 JOSEPH ARCH: REFORMER By WILKINSON SHERREN THE centenary of the birth of Joseph Arch, the English rural reformer, which occurred on November 10 of this year, recalls how a great and holy...
...In the summer of 1926, members of the English hierarchy made pronouncements in this spirit in regard to the lamentable state that had come upon the miners of England, Scotland, and Wales as a result of their efforts to obtain a living wage in the coal industry...
...nor were the promoters of it mischievous agitators...
...Greatly daring—the time was when the rustic was under the squire's thumb—Arch started a campaign to induce the peasants to band themselves together in their own interests...
...the farmers went up next...
...There is a generous reference to the great English prelate in the autobiography which Arch wrote near the end of his life: "Cardinal Manning spoke up nobly for us...
...Cardinal Manning, as I must call him, proposed the first resolution: "That this meeting deeply sympathizes with the laborers of England in their depressed circumstances, believing their present position to be a disgrace in this age of civilization, and inimical to the best interests of the country, and is of opinion that measures should be adopted without delay for their social improvement and intellectual elevation...
...He determined to bring about an improvement...
...The testimony, at such a time, and in such a place, of a man so respected, and who occupied such a commanding position in his church, was of the greatest value to the Union...
...He said that the agricultural movement was not an act of insubordination...
...England was set by the ears, and the result was that the Agricultural Laborers' Union was born...
...Archbishop (afterward Cardinal) Manning sat on the platform almost cheek by jowl with Charles Bradlaugh, the infidel, and Sir Charles Dilke, the man of the world...
...and then, the very last of all, went the poor agricultural laborers...
...The recollection belonged to his earlier days: "First, up walked the squire to the Communion rail...
...Great publicity was secured by a big meeting at the Exeter Hall, London, when the quality of the platform did a good deal of credit to the country...
...The peasants of England were sunk in abject poverty in 1872 (their banner year, as it turned out to be) and Joseph Arch, born at Barford in 1826, knew from personal experience how hard was their lot...
...The Lord Mayor of London was to have held the chair, but his place was taken at the last moment by Samuel Morley, M.P., a noted Liberal of his period...
...then up went the tradesmen, the shopkeepers, the wheelwright, and the blacksmith...
...He died at Barford in 1919, after noble work for the cause he had at heart...
...Joseph Arch lived to see trade-unionism a mighty force in the land, though his own union dwindled away to a sick and funeral benefit club...
...The story of Arch's life, written by himself, also contains a melancholy picture of what happened in a village Anglican church in England at the time of Holy Communion...
...But he blazed a trail...
...157 JOSEPH ARCH: REFORMER By WILKINSON SHERREN THE centenary of the birth of Joseph Arch, the English rural reformer, which occurred on November 10 of this year, recalls how a great and holy Prince of the Church stretched out his hand with a gesture of sympathy to the Warwickshire peasant, who had trained himself for "spellbinding" while working as a Methodist lay preacher...
...and listened to Joseph Arch and others speaking on behalf of their fellow rustics...
...Yes, Manning, both as Church of England parson, and as a Roman Catholic priest, ever proved himself the working-man's friend...
Vol. 5 • December 1926 • No. 6
