W. J. Davis
Published: 2016-08-18
Total Pages: 200
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Excerpt from The British Trades Union Congress; History and Recollections Obviously, the possession of such a record should the better enable the delegates to Congress to appreciate the importance of the work in which they are actually engaged, and for the continuity, efficiency, and success of which they are individually and collectively responsible; whilst, at the same time, placing before them, in a clear and concise manner, the difficulties and trials which those who preceded them in the movement had to meet and overcome, inviting a fuller recognition of the strenuous and splendid services which those men, by energy and determination, were able to accomplish, and clearly setting forth the benefits and advantages which the Trade Unionists of the present day are enjoying as a result of those earlier labours and struggles. By the help of these personal recollections and the abbreviated records of the Congress discussions, the reader will be materially assisted in realising the work - the comparatively prodigious work - which the earlier Trade Unionists undertook on behalf of the movement whose foundations they laid, and the difficulties surmounted in carrying to a successful issue the many legislative measures, the initiation of which, it can with truth be stated, mainly emanated from the deliberations of the men who were prominent in the earlier stages of the Trade Union movement. The Records emphasise in a most remarkable manner the proverb that History repeats itself I and make it clear how the movement in favour of trade combination was impeded at every stage by the capitalist, with the undisguised aid of some of the judges. It will be gathered that whenever Parliament had legislated in the interest of the workers' combinations, judge-made law has time and again stepped in to frustrate the clear intentions of those responsible in Parliament for the framing and passing of such legislation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.