ABSTRACT
The stiffest problem before the League was not to get a Union for a given group of women workers into being; the drive and dash of their secretary could be relied upon to do that. It was to keep it in being, in view·of the poverty and isolation of the members. Thinking over this difficulty, Mary Macarthur came to the conclusion that, instead of forming a series of small, and therefore weak groups, they ought to try to bring all the women outside the big trades, like the textiles and the clothing and boot and shoe workers, into a single Union, with local branches. Then, finance would be easier ; it would be easier to keep members together if they were joined up to a bigger unit than their own ; the secretary of the common organis~tion could speak to any given employer with the weight of a national organisation behind her. The comprehensive whole would be a Federation, 'whose branches could, if they were strong enough, take responsibility and do real work ; but the central officers would lay down common policies for all the members and speak for all of them. This new Federation would in no sense supersede the Trade Union League-how c.ould it, if she, Mary Macarthur, remained secretary of both ?
