ce the standards of social
comfort and hygiene have undergone complete transformation during the
last century. But the important points to note are, first, that it is
not only 'reformers' who put forward these ideals, but that they have
become to a large extent common to all classes of the people, and,
secondly, that the raising of the standard which proceeded at a slow,
irregular rate for, roughly speaking, a hundred years, quickening in one
decade and remaining almost stationary during the next, is now
proceeding with comparative rapidity. Already such a rate of mortality
and sickness as was common in the trades technically called dangerous
twenty years ago has come to be regarded as monstrous and would no
longer be tolerated with patience. This acceleration in the raising of
industrial standards is doubtless largely due to the conscious
participation of the workers themselves in the business of providing for
their own protection; but it may also be referred in some degree to a
quickened conscience and a more intelligent appreciation of the
importance of the manual worker in the national economy on the part of
the public as a whole. The same movement has been taking place, in
different degrees according to their differing circumstances, among the
other industrial peoples of the Old World and the New. The quicker this
advance on the part of some nations the more keenly was the failure of
others to make progress in the same _ratio_ felt by those belonging to
the first group. An uneasy consciousness that the backward nations were
beginning to constitute an obstacle to progressive domestic legislation
on the part of the advanced nations began to manifest itself. It
appeared that the lame ducks were setting the pace for the whole fleet,
and it was seen that self-defence no less than concern for the welfare
of the human race at large demanded the devising of some machinery by
which the movements of these laggards should be quickened.

Thus, seventy years after Owen had appealed in vain to the Powers in
session at Aix-la-Chapelle, a definite step was taken towards an
international agreement directed to the benefit of the working classes
of Europe. It must not be supposed that during this interval no
inheritor of Owen's tradition had been found or that his doctrine had
been altogether forgotten for want of a preacher. Now and again prophets
arose who, if they did not share Owen's genius, were at least his equals
in sincerity