Geoffrey Drage - Trade Unions

NO one has pointed out more clearly than Dr. Baernreither how much the principle of voluntary association has contributed to the material prosperity and moral elevation of the English working classes. Writing nearly twenty years ago, he said : England is at present the theatre of a gigantic development of associated life, which gives to her labour, her education, her social intercoursenay, to the entire development of her culturea pronounced direction, a decisive stamp. Since the repeal of the laws prohibiting combinations (1824), which was the turning - point in the history of the English working class, the working mens associations have gained immensely in importance ; they have become more organized, more enlightened, more firmly established. The power of union, the capacity of submitting to the lead of others, the pertinacity and energy which they display in the pursuit of fixed aims, are amazing. In the course of the last decade these associations have become more and more differentiated, according to their various objects, and are now well-defined, economic, and legal institutions. The combination of the earlier more scattered and disconnected groups into great centralized associations has to an extraordinary extent increased their power.