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Under the system in operation before the adoption of the above, branch secretaries had to enter details on a very large sheet, apportioning the contributions to the different funds. Their task was laborious, and only part of the funds came to Head Office. It was possible for a defiant secretary to sign an illegal payment of strike pay, and although that never happened, the danger to the whole Society was sufficiently proved by Taff Vale.

For several reasons it might be said that 1903 saw the birth of the Society in its modern form, with a real Head Office, with an organiser, with a Parliamentary fund, with a widened membership, and with delegates present, like J. Bromley, Geo. Wride, and several others, who were destined to have very close contact with its larger growth and development in the next twenty years on the lines now adopted.

The Conference was preceded by a further discussion between the A.S.R.S. and the A.S.L.E. & F., on the Scheme of Federation, shelved since the year 1900, and this is an appropriate position to introduce the scheme in full:—