The Secret of the League by Ernest Bramah

[syrakusos]

Ernest Bramah Smith wrote adventure and detective stories. The Secret of the League: The Story of a Social War (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1907; 1909; 1920), published under the name "Ernest Bramah" tells of a strike by upper and middle classes against the encroachments by a Socialist government.

The book was written in the aftermath of the 1906 elections in which the Labour Party, formed just seven years before, gained 29 seats - a meteoric rise from the bare two seats it held before - and for the first time emerged as a serious force in British politics. The prospect of Labour gaining a majority, though still far-off, was no longer impossible - a prospect which some Britons, evidently including Bramah, found highly disagreeable. All the more so as the period following the elections was full of intensive labour disputes and militant strikes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_the_League

Naval hero (and expert flyer) Gatacre Stobalt takes the name "George Salt." Published first in 1907, the story is set about 1918. Bramah assumes that personal flying on bird-like wings has become a sport. It opens and closes the book. First, Salt rescues the daaughter of Sir John Hampden, the last politician of standing who could have united the Liberals and Conservatives against the Socialists. At the close, Salt flies to rescue Miss Irene Lisle, a very middle class girl of clear opinions, whom we meet in the first pages.

With the introduction from Sir John's daughter, Salt delivers a secret plan. Despite his initial misgivings, when Hampden see the first pages of the plan, he sweeps the books and papers off his desk to take the rest, one of many gestures that fans of Atlas Shrugged will recognize. How much of this dime novel Ayn Rand actually cribbed, what she only unconsciously echoed and what she merely shared with another writer of her own period is arguable. Hampden and Salt form The Unity League. Membership is a steep five pounds -- think $1500 (gold) to $10,000 (purchasing power) in today's money. At first, only the well-to-do join, of course. Eventually, the numbers swell to 5 million. (In 1900, the population of the UK stood at about 38 million.) Also, at first, while telling members to expect sacrifice and asking them to volunteer their labor, the Unity League has no special programs or agenda, except to turn out the Socialists. The Socialists are unconcerned at this point because their overwhelming majority has given them free reign.

Miss Lisle, in fact, discerns that the Unity League is more than a mere political party of no special purpose.

This little book runs about 280 pages of nice typography. It was never more than entertainment. Elements that a more systematic writer would have expanded are glossed over. Chief among them are the rabble of "Father Ambrose." Calling for a New Jerusalem and threatening to turn out the Labour party looters, Father Ambrose and his mob appear only once and then not again. The Labour clique will be familiar to readers of Atlas Shrugged, from honest looters who want to fill their own cupboards without killing the goose that is laying the eggs, to the intellectually vacuous who never seem to understand what is at stake in any meeting while issues swirl around them. Early on we understand that the Labour MPs and ministers are lining their own pockets while others in the party scheme to be the next to seize the loot. (The Home Secretary lives on a mere 50 quid, while investing the other 450 offshore.) That, too, is not fully developed. It is most likely that the arrest and rescue of George Salt is only typical for the medium and the times. The Prisoner of Zenda contains some of the same flavor.

After two years of planning, the Unity League strikes by refusing to buy coal. Disaster cascades. Members of the League have switched to oil. An unusually hard winter sets in. The poor march on London and occupy it.

Salt rescues Lisle. Everyone lives happily ever after. The English constitution is changed from one man one vote to one share one vote with shares starting at ten pounds -- think $2500 to $15,000.