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Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden PC (; 18 July 1864 – 15 May 1937) was a British politician. A strong speaker, he became popular in trade union circles for his denunciation of capitalism as unethical and his promise of a socialist utopia. He was the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, a position he held in 1924 and again between 1929 and 1931. He broke with Labour policy in 1931 and was expelled from the party and excoriated as a turncoat, as the Party was overwhelmingly crushed in 1931 by the National Government coalition that Snowden supported. ==Early life: 1864–1906== Snowden was born in Cowling in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His father John Snowden had been a weaver and a supporter of Chartism and then a Gladstonian liberal. Snowden later wrote in his autobiography: "I was brought up in this Radical atmosphere, and it was then that I imbibed the political and social principles which I have held fundamentally ever since".〔Philip, Viscount Snowden, ''An Autobiography. Volume One. 1864-1919'' (London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson, 1934), p. 19.〕 Although his parents and sisters were involved in weaving at the Ickornshaw Mill he did not join them, after attending a local board school (where he received additional lessons in French and Latin from the schoolmaster) he stayed on as a pupil-teacher.〔 When he was 15 he became an insurance office clerk in Burnley.〔 During his seven years as a clerk he studied and then passed the civil service entry examination, and in 1886 he was appointed to a junior position at the Excise office in Liverpool.〔 Snowden moved on to other posts around Scotland and then to Devon.〔 In August 1891 in Devon when he was aged 27, Snowden severely injured his back in a cycling accident and was paralysed from the waist down.〔"Lord Snowden." Times (England ) 17 May 1937: 15. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 8 September 2013.〕 He learned to walk again with the aid of sticks within two years.〔Duncan Tanner, "Snowden, Philip, Viscount Snowden (1864–1937)]", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', 2004;〕 Following the accident his Inland Revenue job was kept open for him for two years but due to his condition he decided to resign from the civil service.〔 While he was convalescing at his Mother's house at Cowling he began to study Socialist theory and history.〔 Snowden joined the Liberal Party and followed his parents in becoming a Methodist and a teetotaller. In 1893 Snowden was asked to give a speech for the Cowling Liberal Club on the dangers of socialism in the aftermath of the formation of the Independent Labour Party in neighbouring Bradford. In his research on socialism Snowden instead became convinced by the ideology. He eventually joined the executive committee of the Keighley ILP in 1899 and went on to chair the ILP 1903-06. He became a prominent speaker for the party and wrote a popular Christian socialist pamphlet with Keir Hardie entitled ''The Christ that is to Be'' in 1903. His strident rhetoric, well-laced with statistics and evangelical themes, contrasted the evil conditions under capitalism with the moral and economic utopia of future socialism. He condemned as "bloodsuckers and parasites" local textile company executives. In 1898 he launched the ''Keighley Labour Journal,'' using it to denounce waste, pettiness, and corruption. However, he ignored the concerns of the trade unions, which he judged to be conservative and fixated on wages.〔 By 1902 he moved his base to Leeds and toured Britain as a lecturer on politics and corruption, with his own syndicated column and short essays in numerous working class outlets. By the time he was elected Labour MP for Blackburn in 1906 he had become a well-known socialist figure, standing at the national level alongside both Keir Hardie, Professor Arnold Lupton and Ramsay MacDonald.〔〔Millman, Brock, ''Domestic Dissent in First World War Britain'', 2000, page 186.〕 In 1905 Snowden married Ethel Annakin, a campaigner for women's suffrage. Snowden supported his wife's ideals and he became a noted speaker at suffragette meetings and other public meetings.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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