Pontypool, Neath, Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford, Tondu, and Carnforth. They were indeed taking the only course to fling off slavery. During the same year the London & North Western had threatened to discharge men who held office in the inoffensive Amalgamated, and some members refused to be nominated as delegates to the A.G.M. for that reason. The new Associated Society was taking the correct line, and it caused the Amalgamated to end its talk of a Protection Fund and to act, for in October of 1880 provision was made for one, The resolution to that effect was moved and seconded by drivers, but by that time the Associated was on its feet.
For economy's sake, it was decided that the affairs of the Society should be conducted by a committee elected from the branch or branches in the town chosen as headquarters of the Society, and after consideration of the various towns in the movement, Leeds was chosen as the centre. Thus it happened that for the first few years the Leeds men controlled and administered the affairs of the Association, and did it very conscientiously. Rules had been framed, and a well-organised, although small, Society brought into existence by January of 1881, when the Leeds Branch was vested with directing authority. The first meeting of the new local committee was held on Sunday, March 6th, 1881, when there were present Joseph Brooke, George Rushforth, Henry Shuttleworth, Joseph Leech, George Bamforth, Charles Woodhead, Samuel Lester, Roger Hawksley, Benjamin Fielding, Samuel Holland, and Walter Arnold.
The first resolution carried was:—
"That the poetry on the first page of the rules remain as at present, but that on first page of branch rules it be omitted."
This referred to the Burns' quotation so familiar to all our members:
“If I'm yon haughty lordling's slave
By Nature's law designed,
Why was an independent wish
Ever planted in my mind?
