ABSTRACT
The reforms introduced by the 1910 Liberal Government, including the Trade Union Act of 1913, were auguring well for the unions. Wages were falling behind prices and many trade unionists were beginning to look again at the political organisation which the trade unions had fashioned. In industry the Syndicalists believed that craft unions should be garnered into great industrial unions until eventually only four or five unions would represent all of the workers in Britain. Some older trade union socialists still inhale the fragrance of the strong, heady four years from 1910 to 1914, and like those on St Crispin’s Day in another battle, stand a-tiptoe when they tell of it. The Daily Herald was hostile to the Labour leaders and the Syndicalists became regular contributors with Will Dyson providing the biting social comment in cartoons that for many months had the unions in ferment.
