MACDONALD, JAMES RAMSAY ( ), Brit ish politician, was born on Oct. 12, 1866, at Lossiemouth, a little fishing village on the Moray Firth. His father was a labourer, his first home a "but and a ben." At Drainie board school he received an elementary education and continued as a pupil teacher. Coming to London at 18, he worked at 12/6d. a week as a clerk. He continued his own education by evening classes, laboratory work and incessant reading. A breakdown in health ended his scientific career, and sent him to journalism.
MacDonald's experience and reading made him a convinced socialist. He joined, in 1894, the Independent Labour Party, founded by Keir Hardie, and in 1895 stood, unsuccessfully, for Southampton. As a member of the London county council he completed his training for public service, and, after his marriage, in 1896, with Margaret Ethel Gladstone, niece of Lord Kelvin, made frequent journeys abroad. In 1897 he paid his first visit to Canada and the United States; in 1902 he went to South Africa; in 1906, travelled through the Pacific to Australia and New Zea land; in 1910, visited India, whither he returned in 1913 and 1914 as a member of the royal commission on the civil service. He also attended the (Second) Socialist International.
Three main stages may be noted in his political career: the creation of the Labour Party, the World War and the Labour Government. In the 'nineties, the great trade unions still stood aloof from politics, or were satisfied with a vague alliance with the Liberal Party. The propaganda of the Independent Labour Party, with which he was prominently associated, was directed to convincing the unions of the need of a political party for labour; in 1899 the Trades Union Congress was induced to set up a committee to consider parliamentary action. Out of this came the Labour Representation committee, of which MacDonald was secretary. Thanks largely to his energy, patience and tenacity, the hostility of some unions and the apathy of others was broken down and a Labour party came into being in 190o. After the return of 29 M.P.s, run by the Labour Representation committee in 1906, the battle was won; the party became an effective force. But it was only in 1918 that MacDonald's ideas were fully realized. The party was reorganized and thrown open to all classes, and in 1928 had over 3,500,000 members.
Elected as M.P. for Leicester in 1906, by 1911 he was leader of the Labour Party in the House of Commons. A constructive critic of Grey's foreign policy, he opposed, on Aug. 4, 1914, the view that there was an "obligation of honour" to go to war. The speech was an agreed one, but the majority of the party broke away. He had already refused suggestions of office; he now resigned his leadership. He was denounced in public and private, and had to face the fact that his views were not ac cepted by the nation at war. In 1918 he lost his seat at Leicester, and in 1921 failed to get in for East Woolwich.
Although out of the House of Commons till late in 1922, his influence on opinion steadily grew. By 1922, the party took his view of the Peace treaties, and resisted the tendencies that split nearly every Labour Party abroad. In 1912, he had opposed the demand for the substitution of industrial ("direct") for parlia mentary action in his book Syndicalism; in 1919, when, under the stimulus of Russian events, this demand reappeared as the Com munist doctrine of violent revolution, he wrote Parliament and Revolution and Parliament and Democracy, in which he gave a definite and logical lead against the tactics of violence and cham pioned parliamentary democracy. The 1922 election registered his moral ascendancy. Labour, with 140 members, was the sec ond party in the state, and he himself, returned for Aberavon, was chosen by his colleagues leader of the opposition.
After the sudden election of 1923, he came back with 192 fol lowers. With the authorization of the National Labour Party and the Trades Union congress MacDonald declared that Labour would take office, if given the chance, in order to render national service. On Jan. 21, 1924, he accordingly moved a vote of no confidence in the Unionists, which was carried with Liberal sup port. Next day the king called upon him to form a Government. The first Labour cabinet was announced on Jan. 24, and on Feb. 12 the new prime minister set out its general programme in the House of Commons. In this, the first item was the settlement of a disturbed Europe; with this supreme object in view, he added the post of foreign secretary to his premiership.