ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Mill's and Marshall's views on trade unions. Marshall emphasised the role of education as a factor in changing labourers attitudes towards life, and in his 1873 speech, considered education as the catalyst for the rise in the "standard of life". Marshall did not seek to shift the burden of state education to the individual, but emphasised the role of individuals or parents. Trade unions have been at once a primary product and a primary cause of this constant elevation of the "standard of life"; where that standard is high, unions have sprung up naturally In Marshall's view, the significance of trade unions was not only to raise wages, but also to raise the "standard of life" of the labouring class. Marshall believed that the increased wages of the labouring class by trade unions would raise their "standard of life", arguing that wages should be used to educate children.
