Note 216 — Chapter III

Foster died in 1831, and McGowan settled at Glasgow. “Almost every spinning district,” writes the Poor Man’s Advocate of June 23, 1832, “of any consequence, was enrolled in the Union. The power of the Union, of course, increased with its members, and a number of the worst-paying employers were compelled to advance the wages of the spinners to something like the standard rate.... The Union, however, which Mr. McGowan had mainly contributed to mature, has since, from distrust or weariness, sunk into comparative insignificance.”