Excerpt from The Lament of the Sweated The object of these introductory sentences is to apologise to the reader for the imperfect character of the treatise, and to plead as its author's justification for its appearance at all, that for more than half-a-century he has taken an active interest in labour movements, more especially in such as had for their object the raising of the wages and improve ment in the condition of the working classes. A few words based upon his long experience may therefore be useful at this juncture. He can well remember when trade unions were regarded as conspiracies in restraint of trade, and when anyone who ventured to justify and support them was considered an enemy of society. The advance from that stage of public opinion to the present, when it is proposed to establish trade unions with legislative sanction and support for the2 the lament OF the sweated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.