Joiner

“ In the same way, a meeting arranged ad hoc between delegates of an employers’ association and a trade union, for the purpose of arranging differences as to the terms on which the members of the association shall employ members of the union is not usually classed as “conciliation,” unless the meeting is held in the presence of an independent chairman or conciliator, or in pursuance of a permanent agreement between the associations laying down the procedure for the settlement of disputes. ”

“ Courtship, love, presents, jointures, settlements have no place in their thoughts, or terms whereby to express them in their language. The young couple meet, and are joined, merely because it is the determination of their parents and friends; it is what they see done every day, and they look upon it as one of the necessary actions of a reasonable being. ”

“ The close neighbourhood of the inhabitants of towns early introduced an artificial system of union, analogous to the frankpledge. Men formed themselves into what were known as frith-guilds, [74] the members of which were mutually responsible for one another, met at periodical feasts, supported one another’s poor, and in other respects performed the duties of members of an artificial family. As trade increased these guilds in the generality of cases coalesced into one, which took upon itself the direction of trade, and was known as the merchant guild. ”

“ There's something of the same dismal diminuendo in the evolution of a Master into a Mister.
The very vital importance of the word "Master" is this. A Guild was, very broadly speaking, a Trade Union in which every man was his own employer. That is, a man could not work at any trade unless he would join the league and accept the laws of that trade; but he worked in his own shop with his own tools, and the whole profit went to himself. ”

“ Yet all who know even a little of the Middle Ages can see that the modern Trade Union is a groping for the ancient Guild. It is true that those who look to the Trade Union, and even those clear-sighted enough to call it the Guild, are often without the faintest tinge of mediæval mysticism, or even of mediæval morality. ”

“ The recedence of the clan in favour of the joint family must therefore be regarded as a process in which a limited number of closer blood relatives separate from the clan and gradually attain the dominant influence within society. Such a development presupposes first of all a sharper demarcation of the individual family. Hence the joint family directly impresses one as being an extension of the individual family. ”

“ Here are associations whose ties go over, and under, and through it, a meeting of merchants, a military corps, a college-class, a fire-club, a professional association, a political, a religious convention; — the persons seem to draw inseparably near; yet, that assembly once dispersed, its members will not in the year meet again. Each returns to his degree in the scale of good society, porcelain remains porcelain, and earthen earthen. The objects of fashion may be frivolous, or fashion may be objectless, but the nature of this union and selection can be neither frivolous nor accidental. ”

“ If more acceptable to you, we should gladly form a union on the basis of either the second or the third proposition already stated. Our chief desire is for a complete and hearty union, in which, acknowledging the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, we may live and work together in the love of Christ, the Elder Brother of us all. That our Heavenly Father may graciously help us all in perfecting and maintaining such a union, is our earnest prayer. ”

“ The members of a clan have many common rights and privileges which bind them together, so that the clan-tie has a very real meaning. Property, however, as we shall see shortly, is largely centred in the family or the individual, and the Todas are in a state of social evolution in which the common bond constituted by membership of the clan has been largely replaced by the bond constituted by the family. They are in an intermediate condition between the state of society in which the clan is the social unit and that in which the family has taken this position. ”

“ Are we not justified in the belief that we shall find them also at the roots of literature?
What is a "clan"? As already observed, we are not to suppose that all clans are exactly alike. Trades-unions and co-operative associations are called by their respective common names, yet even with our abundant means of contemporary information we are content to merge individual differences in our general notions of the one and the other. ”

“ There is an essential union and there is an apparent union. I would not give a fig for the last, but the first is worth all we possess. If we only appear to be united and bound together and the bands should once be broken, separation would ensue, all would be confusion and the strength we possess would be wasted; but if we take such a course as will enable us to see alike and act alike, we will have veritable strength. Then let us try to establish such a union by being free and frank with and true to each other. ”

“ They no sooner perceived the same feelings in each other, than there arose in their hearts a gnawing jealousy, the bond of union was broken, and as, in general, three happy people can with difficulty reside under one roof, since union is the daughter of mutual necessity, so it fell out with the partnership, the three united inheritors for life separated, only promising to each other not to betray the secret. ”

“ A joint-stock company, working with some of its own members and with others as agents, cannot bring to issue the great question whether the existence of the individual family is compatible with the universal family, which the term "Community" signifies. ”

“ The bond of union was allegiance to a living person. Is it conceivable that this person was not the object of daily interest to its members, or that they did not make His history the subject of earnest inquiry? Can we suppose for one moment that any of them were ignorant of or had forgotten the grounds on which they had joined the new community, or which formed the basis of its life? The recollections of the members of a society which is only between twenty and thirty years old must be fresh. ”

“ The members consist of about fifty gentlemen, who dine occasionally at each other’s houses; the company being chiefly selected from the brotherhood, if that term can be applied to a circle of acquaintance, who, without any formal institution of rules, have gradually acquired a consistency that approximates to organisation. ”

“ The Guild was thus internally a self-regulating unit laying down the conditions under which production was to be carried on, and occupying a recognized status in the community based on the performance of certain communal functions. ”

“ The methods used in getting a Union started depends upon the circumstances in the locality where the Union is to be formed. You can call a meeting, advertising the same. If there are any among you who are able to explain the principles of the I. W. W., have them do so to those who attend the meeting. ”

“ For we need an increase of union, particularly in some places. We will take Ogden, for instance, how shall we establish union and preserve it here? I have thought there is one thing that needs to be impressed upon us, and that is har-mony of feeling and of thought between the heads and the body of the people. In order to establish that and continue it, there needs to be an identity of interests in our hearts. It will not do for our brethren, when they meet each other, to shake hands and enter into a formal conversation, and then, when they separate, have something evil to say of each other. ”

“ From this anomalous provision operating in con junction with their marriage regulations, the Friends, as they have declined in numbers, have become increasingly bound together by family relationship ; and whilst the spirit of clan- ship has conferred some elements of strength, it has also favoured the growth of that exclusive feeling which is rarely absent from any association of men, in which Membership is principally obtained through hereditary descent. ”

“ In view of this truth, a covenant union by blood that looked to the transmission of life must have been in itself, to a thoughtful and reverent person, an appeal to the Author of life to be a party to that covenant union, in order to give it efficiency. ”

“ But first we have something to say about the practical and theoretic conditions which have turned men's attention to the clan organisation.
The importance which the clan has assumed in recent speculation is due to a variety of associations, partly incidental to the ordinary activities of our nineteenth-century life, partly peculiar to the character of our modern thought. The everyday life of Europe in general and of England in particular is now habituated to social contrasts greater than ever before fell within the positive range of human knowledge. ”

“ We must bear in mind, moreover, the wise principles of selection that have guided the Association in deciding where to employ its little army of busy hands in tearing down and building up, in redeeming foulness to fairness, in letting air and light enter where these had long been strangers. ”

“ There may, perhaps, also be obscure workmen, or humble citizens—perhaps, also, alas! great criminals.
“‘However, this may be, my most earnest desire is that my descendants should combine together, and, reconstituting one family, by a close and sincere union, put into practice the divine words of Christ, “Love ye one another.”
“‘This union would have a salutary tendency; for it seems to me that upon union, upon the association of men together, must depend the future happiness of mankind. ”

“ Now, brethren, almost all the difficulties that have been brought on the Saints from the beginning, were in the first place in consequence of this kind of division. There is nothing we ought to guard against so much, on the face of the earth, as against division of this kind, or any other kind. It is an old adage that "union is strength," and a very true one. ”

“ It may happen, from one of the companionship absenting himself, that his former share of letter remains undistributed at a time a second division is taking place; under these circumstances, he must not be included in this division. In the event of a scarcity of letter, if any man absent himself beyond a reasonable time, his undistributed matter should be divided equally among his companions, and when he returns, he may then have his share of the next division. ”

“ It requires union—union cemented by indissoluble ties; it unites us to each other and to them, and enables us to act intelligently, and when we get through with our affairs, to assist others in the accomplishment of theirs in the interest of God and humanity. ”

“ For it is not only those whom you are going to join, but you yourself who are going to join them, that confess that what you want can be rightly received in that body which you mean to join when you have received it elsewhere. ”

“ A chain of mutual dependence, too often unrecognized, binds together the members of the human family, whether they belong to the same community or dwell on opposite sides of the earth. The links of this chain are made up of the articles which constitute our daily food, our clothing, homes, fuel, light, our means of communication and transportation, and only by continuous coöperation are they kept together. ”

“ I rejoice, gentlemen, that I have been able to be with you now; that a year has elapsed since our incorporation, as this period allows us in some measure to judge of our future prospects. These are most encouraging, and the only possible difficulty that I can see ahead of you is this: that men may be apt to take exception to your membership because it is not geographically representative. ”

“ Each citizen had his company; and the companies, which now seem to exist only for the sake of epicures and of antiquaries, were then formidable brotherhoods, the members of which were almost as closely bound together as the members of a Highland clan. ”

“ Viewed in this aspect, the Guild system was essentially a balance, made the easier to maintain because it was not so much a balance of powers between different groups of persons with widely divergent interests as a balance between the same persons grouped in different ways, for the performance of different social functions. ”

“ The workers in each particular trade or occupation in any state form a society or guild, presided over by a board or commission elected by the members of the guild from a list of candidates who have passed examination for competency. ”

“ There are many things that people can do better by working together. It took many years for early men to learn to help one another. When they became cave dwellers and learned how to make fire, the first family group began to be formed. This group was called the clan. The clan simply means those who were kin to each other; that is, a number of men and women who believed that they were descended from a common ancestor. At first the common ancestor was a woman, the clan mother. ”

“ He feels a glow of pride as the growth of his Society in funds and members is recorded, and perhaps also a longing to see his own name printed as one of the officers of one of the Lodges, and thus be even distantly associated with the success of the Society. ”

“ Peculiarly is it true, that wherever we find the idea of an absolute merging of two natures into one, or of an inter-union or an inter-changing of two personalities in loving relation, there is reason for suspecting a connection with the primitive rite of inter-union through a common blood flow. ”