CHAPTER V.

TRADES UNIONS.

§ 1. TRADES UNIONS are modern representatives of a series of movements that have exercised great influence over the growth of the people of England, and indeed of all other countries of Western Europe. For the spirit which leads the members of a trade to combine together and concert action for their common benefit, has been present throughout the whole period in which modern civilization has grown up. The wayward savage or the wandering freebooter may submit to some sort of rude military discipline; the passive Oriental may acquiesce in government imposed upon him by the superior energy of a dominant caste; but the highest forms of civilization have existed only where the people have had the energy, the patience, and the strength of will that are required for a resolute and enduring self-government. These qualities have been most highly developed among the Teutonic races that have peopled Western Europe, and especially among the English; but unfortunately these races have often taken a narrow, almost a bigoted view of the meaning of the term neighbour." They have generally been more anxious to be true to those whom they have regarded as their friends, than to avoid inflicting unnecessary injuries on others around them.

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§ 2. We have already seen how the citizens of the Middle Ages formed themselves into town gilds, in order to defend themselves against the oppressions of lawless barons. They did many noble and self-sacrificing deeds until they had achieved their freedom: but afterwards they sank into a habit of harsh exclusiveness towards their inferiors. The oppressed craftsmen formed themselves into gilds, which, after a struggle of some centuries, overthrew the old town gilds, took the rule out of their hands, and governed the towns in their place for many generations.

In early times so little capital was required in production that the distinction between the capitalist employer and the

hired labourer hardly existed. Each craftsman supplied himself with what little capital he wanted, and worked with his own hands. He was generally aided by an apprentice, who would in due course become a craftsman, and often by his own family and perhaps one or two hired servants. Fashions changed slowly, new inventions were rare; his servants were generally hired by the year, it was to his interest to keep them employed even when there was not a good demand for his wares, so he did not wait for orders but worked steadily, and made things for stock. The even tenour of the craftsman's life was seldom disturbed save by famines and plagues, by wars and the tyranny of kings or barons. The craft gilds fostered honesty of work and brotherly kindness, they defended the oppressed and relieved the distress of the unfortunate.

As time went on the complexity of trade increased, more capital was required for production, the craftsman became a small master. It was then ordered on the authority, partly of the gild and partly of the state, how many apprentices each master might have; how many hired labourers, and what wages he should pay them; and how many hours he should work. Gradually as riches increased the masters ceased to work with their own hands and to associate with their hired servants; and in some cases regulations with regard to apprentices made the members of a gild almost an exclusive caste.

83. This social separation between masters and men went on steadily but somewhat slowly until the latter part of last century, when a great impulse was given to it by a series of the most important inventions the world has known. Between the years 1760 and 1770 Roebuck began to smelt iron by coal, Brindley connected the rising seats of manufactures with the sea by canals, Wedgwood discovered the art of making earthenware cheaply and well, Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny, Arkwright utilized Wyatt's and High's inventions for spinning by rollers, and applied water-power to move them; and Watt invented the condensing steam-engine. Crompton's mule and Cartwright's power-loom came shortly after. These inventions took manufacture away from houses and cottages, and gave it to factories and large workshops. Armies of workmen came together under the management of capitalist employers, and the modern Wages-question made its first appearance.

It seems that many of the earlier manufacturers were harsh and uncultivated men, who made a bad use of their newlyacquired power. They crowded their factories with apprentices, many of whom they took from the parish with a premium of £5 each. The factories were so unhealthy, and the children worked so hard and for such long hours as to be seriously injured physically and morally. The workmen did not yet know how

to protect themselves; and at the beginning of the present century their means were straitened by the great rise in the prices of food and clothing that was caused by an extraordinary series of bad harvests, and by the taxes and restrictions arising from the great French war. A Parliamentary report of 1806 says that "the opulent clothiers make it a rule to have onethird more men than they can employ, and thus these have to stand still part of their time." The working men groped about for a remedy against their adversities. For a long time they could think of no better plan than that of petitioning parliament to enforce some ordinances that were framed by the great statesmen of the times of the later Tudors. In particular they urged the enforcement of two statutes passed in 1555 and 15621, which limited the number of looms each master weaver might have, which ordered that the number of apprentices in a shop should not exceed by more than three the number of journey men, and which reiterated the injunctions that wages should be periodically fixed by the Justices of the peace. The first trades-unions were associations of workmen formed with the purpose of petitioning parliament to enforce these rules, and their efforts met with a partial and temporary success. But though such ordinances probably did more good than harm in the times of the Tudors, they would have imposed unendurable shackles on the growth of modern industry. At length it became evident to the unions that they would look in vain to the government for aid, and that they must rely, as the gilds before them had relied, upon their own energies. From that time they no longer approached government with the purpose of inducing it to interfere in their behalf; but they petitioned and agitated for the cessation of government interference against them. Step by step the combination laws have been repealed; until now nothing is illegal if done by a workman, which would not be illegal if done by anyone else. And nothing is illegal when done by a combination of workmen, which would not be illegal when done by a combination of other people.

Free to work out their own destinies, the trades-unions have grown very much on the lines laid down by the old gilds. The good and evil of the gilds, their individual self-sacrifice and their class selfishness, are reproduced in modern unions. And even in matters of detail there is scarcely a single regulation of the unions to which a parallel cannot be found in the history of gilds.

Two generations ago unions were chiefly managed by

1 Philip and Mary 2nd and 3rd, cap. 11; and Elizabeth 5th, c. 4. See Brentano on Gilds, pp. 99, 103.

ignorant, rude men. The law had made a crime of what was no crime, the agreement to refuse to work in order to obtain higher wages; and 'men who know that they are criminals by the mere object which they have in view, care little for the additional criminality involved in the means they adopt." They knew that the law was full of class injustice: destruction of life and property, when it was wrought for the purpose of enforcing what they thought justice, seemed to them to have a higher sanction than that of the law; and their moral sense became in a measure reconciled to crimes of brutal violence.

In many of the smaller unions there remains to the present day much of the folly and ignorance and selfishness, and a little of the violence of earlier times. But we may trust that those faults which are not now found in the largest and best managed unions, will, with the course of time and the diffusion of knowledge, disappear altogether. It is true that even the best unions do not always act up to the principles of unionism as they are expounded by their most enlightened members. But as when dealing with the economics of trade we do not trouble ourselves to discuss at length the guiles of dishonest merchants; so when dealing with the economics of unionism, we may accept its principles as they are put into practice by the most enlightened unionists. Let us then enquire into the constitution, the resources, the aims and the methods of action of the best unions of the present time.

§ 4. A union is an association of workmen in the same trade. Its principal objects are "(1) to procure for their members the best return for their labour in the shape of higher wages, shorter hours of labour, and the enforcement of certain restrictions as to the conditions of employment, which could not be accomplished except by means of combination; (2) to provide mutual assurance for the members by means of pecuniary assistance in case of sickness, accident, death, out of work, superannuation when disabled by old age, loss of tools by fire, and emigration1."

Every member of a trade is invited to join its union provided he can shew that he has complied with its regulations as to apprenticeship, where such exist; that he is fairly steady in his habits, and that he is capable of earning the current wages of the district where he seeks admission. The ceremony of initiation retains much of the dignity and solemn courtesy, and some even of the forms which it had among the old gilds.

§ 5. Originally unions were confined to single towns or small districts, and many are so still; but there is a strong

1 The Conflicts of Capital and Labour, by George Howell, ch. III. § 45.

tendency towards uniting local unions belonging to the same trade. Sometimes, particularly in the case of miners, the bond of connexion is a slight one; the local unions form themselves into an Associated or Federated union. That is, each local society remains "self-governing, self-supporting, keeping its own funds, controlled by its own rules, directed by its own officers and committees, and fixing its own payments and benefits, but in other respects acting in concert, especially in all matters affecting time, wages, conditions of labour, security of life and limb, and supporting each other in all cases of strikes, lock-outs, or disputes with their employers 1."

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More commonly different unions in the same trade join to form an Amalgamated union, which has a central committee of management, or executive, elected by the whole body. On all matters for which the rules of the union do not make clear provision, the executive give decisions which are binding till the next general meeting of delegates from the local branches. When a union has several branches the ordinary expenditure of each is governed by the general rules of the society, which prescribe what payments are to be made as "donation" to those out of work, though not on strike; as help to those who are travelling in search of work; as superannuation allowance; or in case of sickness, accidents, or death. A branch may not make any payment out of the general funds on its own responsibility for the purpose of supporting a strike. "The method of procedure with a view to obtain an advance of wages, a reduction of the working hours, or any other special benefit sought by the members of a given union, or branch of a union, the refusal of which by the employers may lead to a strike, is as follows:-The movement originates with the workmen in some particular shop, firm, or place; the proposal has then to be submitted to the local branch or lodge, where it is discussed in all its details; if the motion be carried by the members of the local branch, it has to be sent to the executive of the union." It must be accompanied by full details as to the numbers of unionists and non-unionists affected, the state of trade and of feeling in the district, and the chance of success. If the executive approves the proposal, it circulates this full statement, with comments of its own, to every branch; and all members of the society have equal votes in deciding on it. Thus it is voted on by those who will derive no direct benefit from the success of the strike; but who will have to pay a share of the strike allowance. Consequently many such applications are refused every year.