Note 176-11 — Chapter III

"They have no notion of contenting themselves with an equal voice in the settlement of labor questions; they tell us plainly that what they aspire to is to control the destinies of labor, ... to dictate, to be able to arrange the conditions of employment at their own discretion." (Thornton, III, ch. 1.) The membership of the English trades-unions was estimated, at the Manchester Congress, June, 1868, at 500,000 by some, and at 800,000 by others. Brentano, II, 310, speaks of 960,000. Since 1830, there have been frequent endeavors to effect a great combination, with special organizations of the different trades. During recent years, there have been even beginnings of an international organization, although in Germany, for instance, at the end of 1874, there were 345 trades-unions, with a membership of over 21,000. (M. Hirsch.) A formal theory of workmen's unions to culminate in popular representation, in Dühring, Arbeit und Kapital, 1866, especially, p. 233; while the American Walker accuses all such combinations, which used compulsion on any one, of moral high treason against republican institutions. (Science of Wealth, 272.)