SHOOTING    NIAGARA	201
the family of the man crippled or killed by accident in the course
of his employment.^1
Neither the error and human frailty of leaders nor the folly
and shortsightedness of the rank and file could halt the steady
march of organised labour. In 1880 the Trade Union Congress
only represented 600,000 members: by 1892 the figure had
doubled. It was not only for advances in wages that the older
Unions now fought, but for recognition as the sole representat-
ives of the workers in all negotiations with employers. They
demanded a share in the direction of their labour. To the fury
of the old-fashioned capitalist, to whom freedom of contract
meant freedom of choice for the master and obedience for the
man, the new Trade Unionism sought to abolish overtime and
regulate piecework. It went further. It used the threat of the
worker's vote to appeal over the head of the employer to a Parlia-
ment now dependent on that vote, for legislation to enforce its
demands. At its annual Congresses, begun in 1866, the T.ILC.
instructed its members to press parliamentary candidates for
such reforms as an eight-hour day, compulsory compensation for
injured workers, the limitation of shop hours, new factory
regulations, further amendment of the law of conspiracy and the
abolition of child labour. It also demanded free elementary
education, land for allotments in country districts and the
appointment of working men to the Bench.
Organised labour in these years sought more than the pro-
tection of the skilled worker. As Cobden had prophesied in the
hungry 'forties, the triumph of laissez-faire had brought enhanced
prosperity to many workers. The skilled artisan had taken his
share, however small, in the increased prosperity of his country.
He had enjoyed good wages, untaxed and plentiful food, long
continued employment, cheap transport and amenities—muni-
cipal parks, libraries, galleries and concerts—such as his father
in a grimmer age had never known. In many cases he had been
able to put away money, insure against old age and sickness, even
^1 "Life was cheap in those days. It was by no means an uncommon thing to see
the maimed and sometimes the dead being brought up from the dock bottom.... I
remember two cases in our gang, George Washington, a smith's striker, fell into the
dry dock one foggy night on his way home and was found at the bottom half dead
in the morning. Jim Platt, a machinist, had his back nearly broken by the fall of a
loose plank from the workshop roof, The result was the same in both cases—patched
up in the hospital and then death after a year or two of lingering pain at
work. But compensation was never thought of.*—G. N. Bamcs> from Workshop to
Cabinet, jf