A Manchester-based newspaper founded and (from 1902) edited by Samuel E. Keeble, who wrote many of the leading articles. It ran from November 1900 to August 1903. Unlike the existing WM press, it resisted the spirit of the age, opposed the Boer wars and imperialism, supported the new Labour Representation Committee and championed social Christianity inside and outside the Church. The financial crisis resulting from its principles being too politically advanced and uncompromising for Wesleyan taste proved its undoing.
'It stood up like any David to the Goliath of rabid Imperialism; slum landlords and speculative jerry builders; unjust employers and sinister vested interests; and if the pebble did not enter the giant's forhead, the eye was steady and the aim was true... The paper because it lacked financial backing could neither secure the size and format, nor the circulation, necessary to make it influential in Wesleyan circles. It must have delighted the eager progressive thinkers as much as it infuriated thosde to whom the word "socialist" was more anathema than the word "communist" would be to a Conservative today. The editor never angled for popular favour and no rich man could subsidize such a paper. Under the circumstances it is noteworthy that it ran for almost three years.'
Maldwyn L. Edwards, in London Quarterly and Holborn Review, January 1947
Entry written by: MSE
Category: Publication
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