Constituency : Stafford 1874-81
Alexander was the other Lib-Lab politician entering the Commons in 1874 although he did not last as long as Thomas Burt.
Alexander was born in Lanarkshire. His father was an agricultural worker but had been in the navy and would later work in the mines. Alexander was self-taught attending sessions at Glasgow University funded from his work as a miner. Alexander first went down the mines with his father aged 8 in 1930. He was a leader of the 1842 Lanarkshire mining strike. In 1849 he became a mines manager but left two years later to open his own school. In 1855 he decided to become fully involved in union work and formed a Scottish coal and ironstone mining association. Despite a bitter defeat the following year the union grew and Alexander helped secure the Mines Act of 1860 establishing the position of checkweighman to ensure fair payment of wages. In 1863 the Miner's National Association was formed and he was elected president. A year later a group of dissidents organised the Practical Miner's Association in protest at Alexander's moderation and supposed links with the owners. In 1868 he was invited by the advanced faction to contest Kilmarnock Burghs against the moderate incumbent Edward Pleydell-Bouverie but withdrew in favour of another contender who failed to wrest the seat away from Pleydell-Bouverie. In 1871 he was elected to the parliamentary committee of the TUC and chaired it in 1872-3. He was active in lobbying for the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1871 and the Mines Regulation Act of 1872. Alexander was also a journalist and wrote for the Glasgow Sentinel, in which he eventually ended up having a controlling interest.
Alexander's policy programme did not have anything to alarm middle class radicals. He was a firm believer in constitutional rather than direct action, dismaying firebrands in his union. He said in 1873 " I look upon strikes as the barbaric relic of a period of unfortunate relations between labour and capital ". He saw getting legislation passed as the best way of improving miners' conditions, He had good relationships with Disraeli and Lord Elcho one of Scotland's biggest coal-owners. He fell out with his fellow Liberal Henry Vivian in 1875 when he named him in his list of "poltroons who attacked women and children" during the coal strike of 1875. However he remained president of the national union until his death.
Alexander became one of the main union spokesmen in the House. He sat on a Royal Commission on trade unions and was one of the authors of a minority report calling for tougher labour legislation. He supported temperance but defended working men against some of the accusations made about habitual drunkenness. He supported Home Rule
Alexander died in 1881 after suffering from jaundice and bronchial infection. He was 60.
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