 Lang 's liberal conservatism enabled him to associate easily with Socialist leaders such as Will Crooks and George Lansbury , successive mayors of Poplar ; he was responsible for bringing the latter back to regular communion in the Church . In 1905 he and Lansbury joined the Central London Unemployed Body , set up by the government to tackle the region 's unemployment problems . That same year Lang took as his personal assistant a young Cambridge graduate and clergyman 's son , Dick Sheppard , who became a close friend and confidante . Sheppard was eventually ordained , becoming a radical clergyman and founder of the Peace Pledge Union . Lang believed that socialism was a growing force in British life , and at a Church Congress in Great Yarmouth in 1907 he speculated on how the Church should respond to this . His remarks reached The New York Times , which warned that modern socialism was often equated with unrest , that " the cry of the demagogue is in the air " and that the Church should not heed this cry . 
