newspaper press. On the other hand, the. facts that the representative assembly is a permanent insti- tution wielding supreme power, and that in practice its' membership changes little from year to year, give it a very real authority over the executive council which it elects every six months, and over the officers whom it has appointed. The t5^ical member of the " Cotton-spinners' Parliament " is not only experienced in voicing the desires of his constituents, but also possesses in a comparatively large measure that knowledge of administrative detail and of current affairs which enables him to understand and control the proceedings of his officers.
The Coalminers are, as we have elsewhere mentioned, not so unanimous as the Cotton Operatives in their adoption of representative institutions. The two great counties of Northumberland and Durham have unions which preserve constitutions of the old-fashioned type. But when we pass to other counties, in which the Miners have come more thoroughly under the influence of the modern spirit, we find representative government the rule. The powerful * associations of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the Midlands are all governed by elected representative assemblies, which appoint the executive committees and the permanent officers. But the most striking example of the adoption of repre- sentative institutions among the Coalminers is presented by 1 the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, established 1887, This great federal organisation, which now comprises two- thirds of the Coalminers in union, adopted from the outset a completely representative constitution. The supreme authority is vested in a "conference," summoned as often as required, consisting of representatives elected by each county or district association. This conference exercises ' uncontrolled power to determine policy, alter rules, and levy unlimited contributions.^ From jits decision there is no
• This was expressly pointed out, doubtless with reference to some of the old- fashioned county unions which still clung to the custom of the Referendum or the
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appeal. No provision is made for taking the votes of the general body of members, and the conference itself appoints the executive committee and all the officers of the Federa- tion. Between the sittings of the conference the executive committee is expressly given power to take action to promote the interests of the Federation, and no rule savoring of Rotation of Ofifice deprives this executive of the services of its experienced members.
The " Miners' Parliament," as this conference may not improperly be termed, is in many respects the most im- portant assembly in the Trade Union world. Its regular annual session, held in some midland town, lasts often for a whole week, whilst other meetings of a couple of days' dura- tion are held as business requires. The fifty to seventy members, who represent the several constituent bodies, consti- tute an exceptionally efficient deliberative assembly. Among them are to be found the permanent ofificers of the county unions, some of the most experienced of the check weigh-m en and the influential leaders of opinion in the mining villages. The official element, as might be expected, plays a prominent part in suggesting, drafting, and amending the actual pro- posals, but the unofficial members frequently intervene with effect in the business-like debates. The public and the press are excluded, but the conference usually directs a brief and guarded statement of the conclusions arrived at to be supplied to the newspapers, and a full report of the proceedings—sometimes extending to over a hundred printed pages—is subsequently issued to the lodges. The subjects dealt with include the whole range of industrial and political policy, from the technical grievance of a particular district up to the ' " nationalisation of mines." ^ The actual carrying out of the
Imperative Mandate, in the circular summoning the important conference oi July 1893 : "Delegates must be appointed to attend Conference with full power to deal with the wages question. "
1 Thus the agenda for the Annual Conference in 1894 comprised, besides formal business, certain revisions of rules and the executive committee's report, the Eight Hours Bill, the stacking of coal, the making of Saturday a regular whole holiday, the establishment of a public department to prevent unscrupulous competition in trade, the amendment of the Mines Regulation and Employers'
Representative Institutions 45
policy determined on b y the conference is left unreserved ly '■• to the executive committee, but the conference expects to be called together whenever any new departure in policy iss required. In times of stress the executive committee shows its real dependence on the popular assembly by calling it together every few weeks.^ And the success with which the. Miners' Federation wields its great industrial and political power over an area extending from Fife to So merset and a
Liability Acts, international relations with foreign miners' organisations and the nationalisation of mines. It may here be observed that the representatives at the Federal Conference have votes in proportion to the numbers of' the members in their respective associations. This practice, often called "proxy voting," or, more accm-ately, " the accumulative vote," has long been characteristic of the Coalminers' organisations, though unknown to any other section of the Trade Union World. Thus the rules of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain are silent as to the number of representatives to be sent to the supreme "Conference," but provide "that each county, federation or district vote upon all questions as follows, viz. : one vote for every looo financial^members or fractional part of Idbo, and that the vote in every case shall be taken by numbers " (Rule lo, Rules of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, 1895). A similar principle has always been applied at the International Miners' Conferences, and the practice prevails also in the several county unions or federations. The l>ancashire and Cheshire Federation fixes the number of representatives to be sent to its Conferences at one per 500 members, but expressly provides that the voting is to be " by proxy " in the same proportion. The Midland Federation adopts the same rule. The Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Durham, and West Cumberland associations allow each branch or lodge only a single representative, whose vote counts strictly inproportion to the membership he represents. This " accumulative vote " is invariably resorted to in the election of officers and in all important decisions of policy, but it is not uncommon for minor divisions to be taken, unchallenged, on the principle of " one man one vote." It is not easy to account for the exceptional preference of the Coalminers for this method of voting, especially as their assemblies are, as we have pointed out, in practice more " representative " in their character, and less trammelled by the idea of the imperative mandate, than those of any other trade but the Cotton Operatives. The practice facilitates, it is true, a diminution in the size of the meetings, but this appears to be its only advantage. In the absence of any system of " pro- portional representation " it affords no real guide to the relative distribution of opinion ; the representatives of Yorkshire, for instance, in casting the vote of the county, can at best express the views only of the majority of their constituents, and have therefore no real claim to outvote a smaller district, with whose views nearly half their own constituents may be in sympathy. If, on the other hand, the whole membership of the Miners' Federation were divided into fairly equal electoral districts, each electing a single member, there would be more chance of every variety of opinion being represented, whilst an exact balance between the large and the small districts would nevertheless be preserved.
During the great strike in 1893 the Conference met eight times in six
months.
46 Trade Union Structure
membership numbering two hundred thousand, furnishes eloquent testimony to the manner in which it has known how to combine efficient administration with genuine popular assent.
The great federal organisations of Cotton Operatives and Coalminers stand out from among the other Trade Unions in respect of the completeness and success with which they have adopted representative institutions. But it is easy to trace a like tendency throughout the whole Trade Union world. We have already commented on the innovation, now _almgst universal, of entrustinglthej^k: of reyising^rules to a specially pIprtpH^ jrnmmittee. It was at first taken for granted that the work of such a revising committee was limited to putting into
