ABSTRACT
Devoted, body and soul, to the cause of the people from his youth upwards, he laboured incessantly for their moral and material elevation, lavishing on them the resources of his high culture acquired by severe study and by meditation, of his energy, of his ardent democratic faith, and also of his large fortune. Full of solicitude for workmen of the factories owned by him, Joseph Cowen extended it to the whole hardworking population of the Tyne district; introduced co-operative societies among them; organized libraries, classes, lectures; turned lecturer, schoolmaster, secretary himself; took part in every social movement tending to the welfare of the people. The branch of the Caucus established at Newcastle, as in other towns, began a merciless opposition to Joseph Cowen. When Joseph Cowen showed that he meant to preserve his independence under the Liberal government as he had done under Disraeli's, the rage which had been smouldering in breasts of the Caucus leaders at Newcastle, burst forth.
