Note 694 — Chapter X · (continued 2)

The revival of the Owenite proposal to develop existing Trade Unions into great Associations of Producers for the carrying on of each industry must be attributed perhaps to Mr. A. J. Penty (The Restoration of the Gild System, 1906), or to Mr. A. R. Orage, aided by Mr. S. G. Hobson, in a series of articles in The New Age, 1911 (afterwards published in a volume, National Guilds, 1913, edited by A. R. Orage). But The New Age had a limited circulation in the Trade Union world, and the plan proposed was not worked out in detail. The idea was afterwards developed by Mr. G. D. H. Cole and his associates, and widely promulgated in the Trade Union world. An organisation for this propaganda, the National Guilds’ League, was started in 1915, and has now a membership of several hundred, amongst whom are included some of the younger leaders of the Trade Union Movement. It publishes a monthly, The Guildsman, edited by Mr. and Mrs. G. D. H. Cole. The various books by Mr. Cole—especially The World of Labour, Self-Government in Industry, and Labour in the Commonwealth—should also be consulted.