 However, Howell was not satisfied with the scale of the reform and continued to campaign for universal suffrage.In 1871 Howell was appointed secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), and regularly contributed to the trade unionist journal "The Bee-Hive" as well as publishing a number of books throughout the 1870s.Howell stood for parliament unsuccessfully at Aylesbury in the general elections of 1868 and 1874 and at Stafford in a by-election in 1881.