152 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



Of the reasoning by which his correspondent attempt- 

 ed to rebut these arguments we have no sample, but 

 Ross, though modest and diffident to excess, was not 

 convinced, and retained his place in the union. Of the 

 force of Miller's statements, so far as they go, there 

 can be no doubt ; the question is whether his inference 

 is not based on too narrow an induction of facts. 

 That cacklers were generally the leaders of the unions 

 at the time he wrote, and that they are too often the 

 leaders now, may be admitted. But he seems to 

 assume that there is a natural necessity in this state 

 of things, and to conclude that no schooling by experi- 

 ence will suffice to teach working men that the leader- 

 ship of the wise man is better than the leadership of the 

 fool. Stump-oratorical leadership has been proved long 

 ere now to be no necessity in the organizations of work- 

 ing men. The charge of tyrannically repressing indi- 

 vidual energy may still be brought against unions ; but 

 it is an established fact that these associations have been 

 the means of keeping tens of thousands of families out 

 of the workhouse, and have dispensed to tens of thou- 

 sands of workmen comforts and necessities in time of ill- 

 ness. Nearly twenty years have elapsed since Miller 

 wrote his autobiography, and perhaps none of our in- 

 stitutions have partaken more largely in the general im- 

 provement which has characterized that period than 

 trades' unions. It is not impossible that, with the com- 

 prehensive information before him which has been fur- 

 nished by the Committee appointed to inquire into the 

 subject by the Social Science Association, and by the 

 Royal Commission which investigated the question in the 

 summer of 1867, he would have divested himself more 

 fully than he ever did of the evil impression made upon 



