To avoid misunderstanding and in fairness to the Trade Unions
it should be noted that this Association of undertakers is presumably not .a Trade Union in the onlinary sense, but rather an association of small employers. It follows, no doubt, in the steps of the Labour Unions, but the impact upon the public is somewhat different, and indeed almost more direct. The spring is from a new angle, but the nature of the tiger is the same. The undertakers are of course free men, and have -a perfect -right to manage their business in their own way, but unless we are mistaken they will probably find that they are managing it very ill. Public opinion in all classes has of late veered round against expensive funerals and is inolinel to adopt the attitude of which Sir Thomas Browne speaks, when he speaks of classical funerals being reduced to " a pinch of incense, a mourner, and an urn." If the undertakers persist in their present policy we may yet see our funerals conducted with absolute simplicity. In many cases the dead man's relations will themselves carry him or transport the coffin to the grave without any hired intermediaries. An undertakers' strike or boycott at this moment would be just the thing to produce the blessed result of simple and almost costless funerals.
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