HISTORY OF TRADES UNIONS.
As a majority of the firemen of the country belong to the noble army of mechanics they will, no doubt, be pleased to read the following history of the trades unions that exert so great an influence upon the welfare of all trades. We copy it from the columns of The Iron Age:
Trades unions are somewhere said to be a natural outgrowth of natural laws. However this may be, all such organizations have been, until a very recent period, plants of very slow growth. As long ago as the time of the first Edward, English peasants sought by united action to alleviate in some particulars the hardships of their lot. but their efforts, being generally directed to the redress of special grievances, ceased when success and more frequently failure was attained. It was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century that trades unions began to be organized for mutual aid and protection and to be permanent. The Watchmakers Society in London was one of a few existing in 1703, but they were all equally illegal and abhorent to the sentiment of the ruling classes, their members having no power or influence in the State. Hampered by such conditions, little good was immediately accomplished, nearly every attempt, no matter in what direction, being a crime.
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