Note 686 — Chapter X · (continued 2)

Minutes of Evidence, Royal Commission on Labour: “Report of Evidence from Co-operative Societies and Public Officials,” 1893, C 7063-1 (Q 2098, 2117-8).

Mr. Tom Mann was also in favour of the Consumers’ Co-operative Movement, and had in those days a distinct bias for legal enactment over direct action in determining the conditions of employment. “I should have said,” he stated in the witness-chair, “that I, as a Trade Unionist, am of opinion that in my capacity of citizen I have just as full a right to use Parliament for the general betterment of the conditions of the workers, of whom I am one, as I have to use the Trade Union; and when I could use the institution of Parliament to do that constructive work that I sometimes use the Trade Union for, and could use Parliament more effectively than I could the Trade Union, then I should favour the use of Parliament, not necessarily in order to enforce men to do something which they might not wish to do, but because it was the more effective instrument to use to bring about changed conditions” (Ibid. Q 2531).