Chapter XI
We have emerged, then, into the twentieth century, after a long and varied run through the nineteenth, and we find that after twenty years of effort the Society is consolidating its position and increasing its strength, it never had called, and did not for eleven years subsequently call, a general strike of its members, but it was all the time preparing for such an emergency, and was also week by week distributing its helpful benefits to needy members. When! was starting this chapter. Henry Shuttleworth came to see me. He was first Vice-Chairman of the Society in 1881, the second to sign the register on the opening night of the Leeds branch, and the second to occupy the position of Chairman of the Executive. When he came to see me, at my request, he was a white-haired veteran of eighty years, but still hearty. We talked over the first twenty years of adventure, and then looked at the present position. He contrasted the early days with the present, and declared the progress to be wonderful and simply amazing. He was very proud of it, and when I showed him the first minute book, containing much of his own writing in the first years, his face beamed with pleasure. He quite thought all those old records were lost for ever, and beyond all recovery.
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