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 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.