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Meet TOM FRASER the man
Page 69
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BORN into socialism, reared in socialism, matured in socialism— that, in briefest terms, is a summary of Tom Fraser's life up to now. His father, a socialist protagonist long before Tom came upon the Scottish scene at the mining village of Kirkmuirhill 54 years ago, was the kind of man at whose home visiting speakers called for a cup of tea before a meeting. It was the age of a struggling Labour Party, of the I L P, of Phillip Snowden, James Maxwell and the Clydesiders. It was also the age of disastrous unemployment, the aftermath of the General Strike and the loathed means test.
Tom, eldest of a family of 10, listened and took careful note. He read a great deal, too—Blatchford. for example, and William Morris. In short, he was the bright boy of the family and soon came to be recognized as the bright boy of the village as well.
Making of a Rebel
"I was a rebel", he told me in his quiet, intense way as he spoke about the formative years. "Right from the start everything combined to make me one. I wanted to be educated, but the higher school was a bike ride away and I had no bike. So I worked part-time in the fields—quite illegally, of course, as I was too young for employment—to save up. And when I at last had enough money it dawned on me that my family could not afford my education. At 14 I had to go out to work to help to support them. Perhaps jealousy and envy are not the best words to describe what I felt in those days, but I seethed with rebellious thoughts about a social system which could not give a promising lad a reasonable chance to be educated."
A rebel? Yes—but, as I see him, not in the Aneurin Bevan sense. His triumphs, one feels. have not been on the public platform (though his parliamen
tary style led to his being asked to second the Address in reply to the King's Speech only a year after his election to the House). It is recorded that after the
orations of Demosthenes, the Phillipies ", men did not say: "That was a fine speech" but: Come, let us march against Phillip!"
An Organizer
Had Fraser been there he would have organized the march, because from his earliest trades' union days he regarded himself, with good reason, as a man behind the scenes. He did not seek platform honours, although in the course of his work he perforce did much public speaking. He chose explicitly the role of organizer. It was he who got his fellow workmen together and continued to rally them. Tom Fraser was the man who did the patient chores and persisted through difficult days. The fact is that when he started work in the pit trades' unionism was not at a very high ebb in his area. Employers were against it and even, on occasion, police were called in to hinder its activities.
The complete confidence his workmates felt in him is evidenced by his appointment at the age of 27 as the first secretary of the Coalburn branch of the Lanarkshire Miners' Union. Later he became president.
Reluctant M.P.
In 1943, being then 32 years of age, Fraser allowed his name to go forward as Labour candidate for the Hamilton division of Lanarkshire. "I fought hard against this", he recalls. "There were better, more qualified men who, I was convinced, would do a sounder job in Parliament. I had no parliamentary ambitions whatever." But the reluctant candidate was elected and has represented the constituency ever since.
Recognition of his abilities was swift in coming. Parliamentary Secretary to Lord Dalton was the first rung of the
ladder. The second was achieved when Labour came to power in 1945: he was appointed Joint Parliamentary UnderSecretary of State for Scotland. While holding this office throughout both Labour Governments he worked hard to introduce new industries to Scotland. and it is entirely in character that he set himself to obtain first-hand knowledge of his native country's industrial problems.
His experience widened with visits to the Donbas industrial area and the Central Asian Republics. During tours in the United States he went down coal mines, met the formidable John L. Lewis and learned something of how transatlantic trades' unions managed their affairs. in 1963 he was a member of the parliamentary delegation visiting the Far East which took a Speaker's Chair to the Parliament of the new Federation of Malaysia.
Found his Feet
How does it feel to be in the House of Commons after a brief career as a trades' union organizer? I asked the Minister of Transport if he was overawed there in those distant days of the troubled 1930s. He replied that nobody could fail to be impressed by Parliament. but it did not take him long to recover from any sense of awe he might have felt about his colleagues, either on the Opposition or the Government benches, "I came to the conclusion that I was as good as they were", he said with a smile. His maiden speech caused him few qualms. It was on a subject about which he felt strongly—tax remission for old or disabled people compelled to employ a housekeeper.
The Gardener When as a youngster he earned a little extra money in the fields and, later, in horticulture, he found a love for growing things which he has never lost. Ask him what his hobbies are and he does not say, as so many top people do, that he has little time for them. On the contrary, his eyes light up as he tells you about his garden and the flowers he wins prizes for. And this, again, is entirely in the character of our quiet, rebellious Minister of Transport, a man of unmistakable personal integrity and undoubted
sincerity of purpose. H.C.