ABSTRACT
The special branch of the industrial problem which the author have been asked to treat, is by no means so difficult a one as it used to be. It is sometimes speculatively contended that wages and other conditions of labour would have equally improved without the pressure of Trade Unions. In party politics Trade Unions must be neutral; but in all that wide field of politics with which labour is specially concerned they have of recent years played a conspicuous part. It is indeed the Trade Unions which have made labour representation the great fact it is to-day. In 1871 Trade Unions were legalised, their registration provided for, and their funds protected. A volume of statistics might now be compiled showing the financial disbursements of the principal Trade Unions during the last quarter of a century. The chief work of the Unions for the present, however, must be missionary in its character.
