TRADE-UNIONS: HOW FAR LEGITIMATE.* 



TRADE-UNIONS are on their trial. Large and increasing numbers 

 of workmen have banded together to promote their common 

 interests ; they claim to represent the feelings and wishes of the 

 artisans in each trade ; they possess large resources, and have 

 used their power with such effect that while they proclaim higher 

 wao-es. lighter labour, and increased influence, as fruits of their 



' O * ' 



exertions, they are denounced by numerous opponents as illegal 

 societies, using outrage and intimidation to coerce men and 

 masters, and as injuring commerce, without permanent benefit 

 even to the members of these unlawful unions. The men say 

 that they have found a plan by which they can, and do, better 

 their condition, and they claim the right to put their plan in prac- 

 tice under the protection of the law. They are answered by the 

 assertion that trade-unions are nurseries of disaffection, fatal to 

 liberty, hostile to merit, and injurious at once to capital and 

 labour. On all hands legislation is called for ; each party awaits 

 with impatience the report of the Royal Commission now sitting ; 

 the unions demand recognition as corporate bodies able to possess 

 property and to recover debts at law ; while their opponents 

 press for the complete abolition of the system, or at least for such 

 repressive and restrictive measures as shall break the power of 

 these combinations. 



The issues are of imperial importance. Mistaken legislation 

 in one direction may involve great detriment to our commercial 

 prosperity ; and errors of an opposite kind may alienate the 

 great body of skilled artisans to whom the suffrage has just been 

 largely intrusted. The loyalty of these men to our constitution 

 as hitherto worked will in a great measure depend on the justice 



1 Herierr of Reports of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the 

 organisation and rules of Trades-Unions and other Associations. From The 



British Recien, March 1868. 



B 2 



