On 7 April 1903, replying to an NUT Executive vote of thanks for his work on the Schoolmaster, Macnamara confessed that, as time went on, he did not find the duties any easier. It had been a heavy year. He had attended the House of Commons, day by day, for eight weary months, and when he got home about 1.00 am it was to do several hours of editorial work. Afterwards, in a series of public meetings, he had striven to publicise and elucidate the new legislation for the benefit of teachers, especially those who were taking their places on the new Education Committees. Throughout he had maintained his attendance both on the Executive and on the London School Board.

From the Board, Macnamara had taken with him to the House of Commons a reputation as an expert on the employment of school children. Parliamentary investigations had begun as a result of an article by Edith Hogg, of the Women's Industrial Council, in the August 1897 edition of the Nineteenth Century. The following May she headed a deputation to Sir John Gorst. After a preliminary inquiry, Gorst had set up an Inter- Departmental Committee of the Board of Education and the Home Office; it collected evidence between 22 February and 22 July 1901. Among the witnesses, with Macnamara, were his former colleagues at Huddersfield, George Sharples and Richard Waddington; Marshall Jackman, now President of the NUT and Sir Charles Elliott of the London School Board.