MIA > Library > Glasier > The Copenhagen Congress
Published: Labour Leader, 2nd September 1910, pp.553-4
Note: This is the first in a series of four articles describing the 7th Congress of the 2nd International, held in Copenhagen in 1910, from the point of view of the British ILP delegation. See the full set of articles
Transcribed: by Graham Seaman for the Marxists' Internet Archive in July 2025
Last edited: July 2025.
Copenhagen is two days by post from England, a circumstance which prevents my narrative in this week's LABOUR LEADER extending beyond the opening day of the Congress. The daily newspapers will doubtless, however, keep Socialists and the general public informed from day to day about the subsequent doings of the Congress, especially should any exciting incidents occur to embellish the proceedings.
My first duty in the present article is to invite my readers to accompany (in mind's eye) our party of British delegates across the North Sea. We left Hull on Wednesday evening, the 24th inst., and arrived at Copenhagen on the following Friday evening.
Our ship was the good ship "Titania" of the Finland line. The line is owned by a Finnish Company, and the ships are manned by Finnish seamen and staffed by Finnish women. So far at last as the "Titania" is concerned our whole party will, I think, bear testimony to the kindness and courtesy of every man and woman of the ship's company. The women, flaxen-haired, and of finely fair complexions, were the very personification of womanly quietness, dignity, and eagerness to accomplish their work with kindness and self-respect. With one accord we all felt that a nation, which bears sons and daughters like these, is a nation beloved of freedom and full of human worth.
Our departure from Hull was timed for 7-30, but tidal or other obstruction delayed our leaving the dock until an hour-and-a-half later. This proved a rather trying strain on the enthusiasm of the band of Hull comrades who assembled on the quay to give us a parting cheer, and it evoked also a keen conflict between the spiritual and material inclinations of the delegates. The majority of the latter had been travelling all day from distant parts, nd were now in a visibly famished condition, and the gratifying announcement of the dinner-bell in the cabin quite overpowered their ethical impulse towards sustaining the Socialist salutations of their comrades on shore. Nevertheless, Hardie and myself, without an undue self-consciousness of virtue, responded to requests for speeches; and cheers for Socialism and the International Congress (which rather affrighted some of our fellow passengers) resounded from the ship's side.
Our party consisted all told of some forty Socialist souls—nearly threefourths of whom were members of the I.L.P. Among them were two members of Parliament, Keir Hardie and Will Thorne, and a clergyman, the Rev. W.E. Moll of Newcastle—the first clergyman, if I recollect rightly, who has ever attended the International Socialist Congress as a delegate. We had also with us three American comrades, Robert Hunter of Chicago, who, both personally and by his writings, is well-known on this side of the Atlantic; Mrs. Lewis, one of the organisers of the American Socialist Party, and William Haywood, of the great "Idaho Conspiracy" fame.
It was with no little interest that I beheld for the first time this man, whose alleged complicity, together with his fellow-prisoners Moyer and Pettibone, in the murder of the ex-Governor Stewenburg of Idaho, his long-delayed trial, and his subsequent triumphant acquittal, aroused intense interest not only in America but throughout the world a few years ago. It was, I remembered, in the columns of the LABOUR LEADER that the alarm-cry "Shall Haywood and Moyer Die" first re-echoed in the Socialist Press of this country, and that for a whole year the incidents of the conspiracy against the accused leaders of the Western Miners were kept week by week before our readers.
Haywood looks, one must admit, just the sort of man whom his enemies would be glad to get rid of by means fair or foul. He is a huge. powerful fellow—a very giant in body, whom, at first sight, one might fancy as a champion pugilist or leviathan heavyweight lifter. But one catches in the gleam of his eye—the only one that is now able to look at us—a soft friendly light that speaks of indwelling tenderness and idealism; and one feels that this big man, terrible as he might be in passion or in battle, has much of the stuff which the incorruptible and even affectionate titans of the mountains are made. He is rather obsessed with the "class struggle" dogma, but is withal, so I think, a man who, with more favourable experiences of our human world, may do much to help the miners of the West to join in the real work of constructive Socialism.
Long after midnight that evening a group remained on deck, and the uplifting waves, as they tossed their white foam against the ship, caught snatches of poetry and song such as the Vikings, maybe, rejoiced their hearts with a thousand years ago.
All next day the sunshine bore us glorious convoy, and some there were like Haigh, of Huddersfield, who stood for hours on the captain's bridge drinking in the breeze and the glory of sea and sky, and some there were who, like Edgar Whiteley, played bowls all day, and some there were who read absorbedly in corners by themselves, and some there were who, heedless of the laughter of the waves, discussed furiously such aching themes as Socialist policy and the merits of Labour Bureaus.
Then, when the evening came, with the kind permission of the ship's officers, we held a concert in the dining room. Haywood, who was appointed chairman, immediately sought to relieve himself of the duty of delivering a speech, resorting to an American device, whereby he declared himself as entitled merely to preside as "temporary" chairman, and to call upon me to act as "permanent" chairman. The stratagem did not, however, succeed, and we exacted a speech from him in the end. W.C. Anderson, whose rendering of "Tam o'Shanter," the previous evening was famed abroad, again recited the poem; Mrs. Martin Haddow, Keir Hardie, Dr. Dessin, and several others sang: Miss Saunders Jacobs rendered one of Beethoven's sonatas on the piano: and Martin Haddow, Mrs. Lewis, Robert Hunter and M. Simmons gave readings. "Marching to Liberty," led by Jack Jones, and the "Red Flag" concluded the programme. A collection on behalf of the Disabled Seamen and Widows' Fund which. according to custom, has to he handed over to the fund at the ship's destination, realised nearly £2. The circumstance that, in this instance, Helsingfors in Finland would be the recipient of the collection, afforded me as Chairman an opportunity of expressing on behalf of the British and American Socialists present, our warmest sympathy with the Finnish Parliament and nation in their struggle against the Russian despotism.
But the evening concert, successful as it was, proved but a prelude to another out-welling of minstrelsy on the spar deck where, under the moonlight and with only the faintest breeze blowing across the ship, a serenade was maintained by the more exuberant of the company till long after midnight. I am sure our American friends will not readily forget their experience of that night, when the sweetness and the wildness of our old country songs and their own American southern melodies floated over the waves! Hardie's singing of "Robin Tamson's Smiddy," Dr. Stirling Robertson's "Oh, gin I were where the Gaddie Rins," Mrs. Haddow's and Mrs. Hamilton's songs grave and gay, and half a hundred more, all with glorious incongruity, winding up with Councillor Hobson's rendering of Omar Khayyam's verses, and Anderson's dancing of the Highland fling and the sword dance barefooted on the deck—surely we had that night a feast of inspiration of idealism for our deliberations at the Congress
Copenhagen is in many respects the most prosperous city in Europe, though its population is less than that of Glasgow, Manchester, or Liverpool. The abundance of its squares, open spaces, and wide streets. and the general air of comfort of its working class are very noticeable. In no other capital town in Europe that I have visited have I been so much impressed with the absence of affronting social inequality among its people. Nowhere have I seen so few palatial mansions and so few slums. There are doubtless many poor people and many rich people, too, in Copenhagen but one sees neither the flaunting display of arrogant wealth, nor the depressing evidences of misery that one meets with in London, Paris, Berlin. Brussels, Amsterdam, or Rome. And, be it noted, Copenhagen is a Free Trade and highly organised Trade Union and Co-operative town, hence it happens that the Tariff Reform trippers give it a wide berth.
The meeting place of the Congress is the Knight's Hall of the Concert Palace, a splendid municipal edifice. The Hall itself is large and admirably suited for conference meetings, but in this instance its capacity has proved quite inadequate for the accommodation of so large a number of delegates. Not only is every inch of the floor of the hall occupied by delegates crammed on either side of the long tables, but provision has had to be made in the gallery for the overflowing numbers. The hall is decorated with finely designed banners, and the alcove of the platform is illuminated with a large emblematical design of the two hemispheres of the world enscrolled with the motto in Danish—"Wage workers of the world, unite."
There are over a thousand delegates present, some of whom come from such far-away lands as Australia, India, Japan, and Argentine. The British section consists of about eighty delegates, more than the half of whom represent the I.L.P.
The circumstance that Mr. H.M. Hyndman has not thought fit to attend the Congress this year has been the subject of rather cynical comment, especially in view of his recent anti-German and militarist pronouncements. Mr. Hyndman is a member of the International Bureau, and this is the first occasion on which be has absented himself from the International Congress.
The Congress proceedings were inaugurated by a magnificent musical ceremony. A cantata, specially written and composed for the occasion, was rendered with truly superb effect by a male voice choir and band, every member of which is a Socialist. The cantata consisted of a Socialist theme wrought into a series of national symphonies, and when the "German Worker's Hymn," the "Marseillaise." and the "International" rang through the hall, the enthusiasm was extraordinary. The whole audience rose to their feet as the "International" was being sung. and in response to their acclamation the song was repeated.
During an interval in the Cantata, Dr. Bang, a member of the Danish Parliament, welcomed the delegates to Copenhagen in a brief speech. Ho pointed out that the Congress was being held in the West end of the city, the most aristocratic quarter. the district in which the King had his palace, and that it was represented by a Socialist in Parliament .
As soon as the choir vacated the platform, Vandervelde, as President of the International Bureau, took the chair, supported by the members of the Bureau, including Hardie and MacDonald, the latter as a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee.
Vandervelde formally declared the Congress open, saying he would wave [sic] his right of speech to his Danish comrade Stauning, who once again heartily welcomed the Congress. and said that Danish Socialists were proud of the honour of extending hospitality to the representatives of the Socialist movement in all lands. Denmark, though a small country, was nevertheless one of the most advanced in the practical application of Socialist principles.
As it turned out, Vandervelde's renunciation of his right to deliver an opening address was only a temporary one, for as soon as Stauning's speech had been translated he rose, and under cover of expressing thanks to the Danish Socialists for their welcome, was immediately in full flight with an oration of his own. It proved, however, to be a highly interesting and exceedingly eloquent deliverance, for Vandervelde is one of the great speakers as well as clearest thinkers among the leaders of the Socialist movement in Europe.
In the course of his address he reviewed the progress of Socialism at home and abroad. Instancing the remarkable success of the movement in Denmark, he declared that the basis of its achievement lay in the unity of the forces of Trade Union and Socialism. He concluded by paying a warm tribute to our German comrades, Singer and Bebel, who were both unable to be present owing to illness. Bebel, he said, was one of the greatest among them: he was great as a propagandist, as an advocate of the emancipation of women, and as a champion of peace.
The opening proceedings were brought to a conclusion with a series of announcements by Huysmanns, the secretary. To-morrow (Monday) the national sections will meet and appoint representatives to the various committees, who are charged with the task of considering the resolutions and bringing in a report upon them to the Congress, which will reassemble on Wednesday.
In celebration of the Congress visit, a great procession and demonstration took place this afternoon. No such display of popular interest and enthusiasm has welcomed the Congress on any previous occasion. Some 20,000 Trade Unionists marched with bands and banners through the streets to the public park in which the demonstration was held. Perhaps the most striking feature of the procession was the remarkable friendliness and enthusiasm with which the processionists were greeted everywhere on their way. Red flags and floral emblems were displayed from the houses, and roses were flung by girls from the windows. It seemed as if literally half the town had turned out to take part in the celebration. The public park overflowed with people who wore Socialist badges. There were five platforms round which immense crowds listened to and applauded the speeches. Hardie and MacDonald were our British spokesmen, and Jaurès, Vandervelde, Molkenbuhr, Dr. Adler, Roubanovitch, Troelstra, Van Kol, and a host of other international speakers delivered rousing orations. Later on the grounds were beautifully illuminated, and the festival ended with a great firework display.
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