ABSTRACT
The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters arose out of the great builders’ lock-out of 1859-60. At the time of that struggle the masons alone of the building trades were organised into a single society, extending throughout England, and providing not only tor trade purposes, but for the ordinary benefits. The lock-out of 1859-60 proved that unions established for trade purposes only, or confined to a particular locality, must inevitably fail whenever a serious crisis occurred. The country carpenter, or small builder, whose apprentice, having served his time, has made for London, simply takes a new apprentice from the weltering mass of agricultural labour lying at his door, or within a mile or two of it; and finds himself under no compulsion to offer higher wages for journeymen. The importance of the second principle will be best understood by looking at the character and working of the old-fashioned unions in which it is not adopted.
