Excerpt from A History of Trade Unionism in Australia The scarcity of authoritative Australian books on economic, social and political problems has been severely felt during the development of the Workers' Educational Association in the Commonwealth. On the foundation of the Federal Council of the W. E. A. In 1918, a means of overcoming this difficulty was sought. Among the pro fessors, lecturers and tutors who have so readily assisted the tutorial class movement, some had collected valuable material bearing on these problems. Through the Federal Council it was thought possible to assemble this material for publication in a series of monographs intended for the use of students in tutorial classes and elsewhere. Thus has the W. E. A. Series of publications been founded, and it is hoped that its utility will extend beyond the immediate needs of the members of the W. E. A. To the growing number of students of social problems in Australia. The chief aim of the series being to encourage investiga tion in a field of study hitherto surprisingly neglected in Australia, the W. E. A. Does not accept responsibility for the views expressed by the writers therein. Its purpose is to stimulate thought, not to propagate doctrines. A dis claimer of this kind may appear odd in a preface, but our experience of the persistency with which our critics insist on attributing to the Association the opinions of those who happen to be connected with it, has convinced us that it is necessary. 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.