and energy. Dr. Ernst Francke, in the article reprinted
from the _Economic Journal_ of June 1909, which I have recommended for
reference at the end of this chapter, names one of these devoted
pioneers, Daniel Legrand, an Alsatian manufacturer who for thirty years
did his best to induce France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Switzerland
to agree on a minimum of industrial legislation. Some very useful work
in the same direction was done, during the years following the
Franco-German War, by a Belgian publicist; and in 1876 Colonel Frey,
President of the Swiss Federal Council, took the first official step in
the direction of international labour treaties, by a speech in the
Council recommending that Switzerland should take the lead in an
endeavour to establish them. To the Swiss Government belongs the honour
of addressing the first circular note to the governments of Europe
proposing the calling of a conference as a first step towards this end.
This conference never met. The idea of international labour legislation
was in the air, and voluntary societies composed of social reformers
were beginning not only to discuss but to support it. The international
meetings of organized workmen, such as the miners and cotton operatives,
in different countries had familiarized the continental mind with the
possibility of common action between peoples in respect of labour
questions. Nowhere did the proposal for the conference arouse more
general interest than in Germany, where the present German Emperor,
then at the beginning of his career, was showing an active interest in
German conditions of industry. It seemed that he too desired to call a
conference, and on his request that he should be given precedence in the
matter, the Swiss Government gracefully gave way. So it fell out that
the first conference on workmen's protection met in Berlin, at the
invitation of the German Government, in March 1890. There were fifteen
delegates, all the governments of Europe, except those of Russia and the
Balkan States, being represented. The chair was occupied by the then
Minister of Commerce, Freiherr von Berlepsch, a man of broad and
enlightened views and singularly sympathetic character, who subsequently
became one of the founders of the International Association for Labour
Legislation, and has probably, more than any other individual, secured
the success of its biennial meetings.

At this conference, which the German Emperor stated in precise terms t