42 TEADE UNIONISM AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION. 



of the present century. The progress, nevertheless, has been 

 real and substantial in material advantages — wages and 

 hours of labour ; in social position, by the recognition of 

 industrial rights ; in political status, by enfranchisement 

 and election to the highest posts open to popular election ; in 

 constitutional rights and judicial obligation by the repeal 

 of repressive and disabling laws, and by the enactment of 

 more just aud equitable enabling laws . . . and even in 

 the administration of justice the position of workmen has 

 improved enormously." This wi-iter strongly emphasises a 

 fact that he declares has hitherto been lost sight of by 

 economical writers, and that is, " the higher duration of life 

 attained by the members of the Unions in recent, compared 

 with former, years." He gives striking^ statistics in support 

 of this assertion, and points to the important consid-^ration 

 that this longer duration of life speaks volumes as to the 

 present improved conditions of life and labour — that the 

 homes and circumstances of the people must be better, for 

 the wives share in the longer duration of life, and that the 

 improved conditions of the heads of the family cannot fail to 

 exercise a beneficial influence upon its younger branches. 



Above all, it has been the tendency of Unionism to bring 

 more prominently under notice the absolute necessity that 

 exists for a wiser allocation of labour, if misery is to be 

 banished from the ranks of the working classes. This is the 

 problem towards which associative effort must turn its almost 

 undivided attention in the immediate future. Almost without 

 consciousness of the fact the Trade Unions have been working 

 out the answer to the riddle, working it out, it may be, through 

 much travail and suffering, but with a growing demonstration 

 of the fact that ** the end will crown the work." 



What are the avowed objects of Trade Unions ? I do not 

 ask upon what grounds we may justify their existence, for 

 their existence is explained in the fact of their adaptibility 

 to the economic conditions under which we live. Trade 

 Unionism takes it place as a natural and necessary factor in 

 the evolution of social life, for as Jevons nicely puts it in his 

 little work on " The State in relation to Labour" (p. 88), " Com- 

 mon trade interest is one of the strongest bonds of society, and, 

 judged by the light of history, is likely always to be a con- 

 siderable factor in social affairs." 



"In their essence," writes Howell, " Trade Unions are 

 voluntary associations of workmen for mutual protection and 

 assistance in securing generally the most favourable conditions 

 of Labour. This is their primary and fundamental object, 

 and includes all efforts to raise wages or prevent a reduction 

 in wages ; to diminish the hours of labour, or resist attempts 

 to increase the working hours ; and to regulate all matters 

 pertaining to matters of employment or discharge, and modes 



