SNOWDEN, PHILIP SNOWDEN, 1ST VISCOUNT, of Ickornshaw (1864-1937), British statesman, was born on July 18, 1864, at Cowling, Yorkshire. Educated at an elementary school, he became a clerk in the customs and excise department. Joining the Independent Labour Party in the year after it was founded, he became one of its most effective speakers and, in 1903, and again in 1917 its chairman. He was a member of the I.L.P. for 34 years, but resigned his membership in Dec. 1927, giving as his reason his conviction that the body ought to be merged in the Labour Party and that its continued separate existence was neither desirable nor necessary. His first parliamentary attempts, for Keighley and Blackburn, failed, but, in 1906, he was returned for Blackburn as Labour M.P. In the House he at once made his mark, notably on financial matters. When war broke out in 1914 he was in Australia. On his return he at once ranged himself with J. R. MacDonald and shared much of the latter's unpopu larity. Defeated in the 1918 election, he won Colne Valley for Labour in 1922, and held the seat with increased majorities in 1923 and 1924. His appointment as chancellor of the exchequer in MacDonald's cabinet was a matter of course_ In his budget, introduced in April 1024, while limited by the commitments of his predecessor, Snowden endeavoured to relieve the burden of taxation on the poor by his reduction in the food duties, and by making provision, in his contingent Old Age Pen sions Act, for the removal of the oppressive features of the thrift disqualification. At the same time, he stood fast by his free trade principles and repealed the McKenna duties on imported motor cars, clocks, musical instruments, etc. ; he also terminated the
duties imposed under the 1922 Safeguarding of Industries Act. Later in the session he introduced plans of constructive work de signed to relieve the prevalent unemployment. At the London conference in July—Aug. 1924, he took charge of the discussions with the bankers which ended in the successful flotation of the German loan in October of that year. He was chancellor of the ex chequer again from 1929 to 1931, when he was created a viscount.
Snowden's power, both in the Labour movement and outside, was due as much to gifts of character as of brain. As a speaker, he was equally powerful both as a private member in opposition and as a minister. Most of his life was spent in the service of Socialism ; he was also a powerful advocate of the emancipation of women and of temperance. In the promotion of these causes, as in his work for peace and in his opposition to Communism, he was notably assisted by his wife, herself a speaker and writer of wide appeal. He was member of the Liquor Control Board during the War, and served on royal commissions on the civil service, canals and venereal disease.
lie was the author of various books, among them A Socialist Budget (1907) ; A Living W age (1912) ; • Socialism and Syndicalism (1913); Wages and Prices (1920) ; Labour and National Finance (1920) ; Labour and the New World (1921).