by adopting in 1895 a Representative Executive, has made its foffi&I constitution almost identical with that of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. The vital difiference between these two societies now lies in the working relation between the central executive and the local branches and district committees ; see the subsequent chapter on "The Unit of Government."
5© Trade Union Structure
who works at the lathe or the forge. Living constantly in London, they are subject to new local influences, and tend unconsciously to get out of touch with the special grievances or new drifts of popular opinion on the Tyne or the Clyde, at Belfast or in Lancashire. It is true that the representa- tives hold office for only three years, at the expiration of which they must present themselves for re-election ; but there would be the greatest possible reluctance amongst the members to relegate to manual labor a man who had once served them as a salaried official. Unless, therefore, a re- vulsion of feeling takes place among the Engineers against the institution itself, the present members of the representa- tive executive committee may rely with some confidence on becoming practically permanent officials.
These objections do not apply with equal force to other examples of a representative executive. The tradition of the Stamford Street office—that the whole mass of friendly- society business should be dealt with in all its details by the members of the executive committee themselves—involves their daily attendance and their complete absorption in office work. In other Trade Unions which have adopted"" the same constitutional form, the members of the represent- ative executi ve residj . in thpir r gnstituenc ies and, in some cases, even continue to work at their trade. They are called, together, like the members of a representative assembly, at ■quarterly or other intervals to decide only the more im- portant questions, the detailed executive routine being •(jfelegated to a local sub -committee or to the official staff! Thus the executive committee of the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives usually meets only for one day a month ; the executive committee of the Associated Loco- motive Engineers and Firemen is called together only when required, usually not more than once or twice a month ; the executive council of the Amalgamated Society of' Railway Servants comes to London once a quarter, and the same practice is followed by the executive committee of the National Union of Gasworkers and General Laborers. It is
Representative Institutions 51
evident that in all these cases the representative executive, whether formed of the salaried officials of the districts or of men working at their trade, has more chance of remaining in touch with its constituents than in the case of the Amalga- mated Society of Engineers.
/Butjybgre .is, la. our opinion,^ a fundamental drawback to government by a represejitajive executive, even under the most favorable conditions. | One jof_the chief duties of a "representative governing bod^^'lS to criticise, control, arid direct the permanent official staff, by whom the policy of the organisation must actually be carried out. Its main function, in fact, is to exercise real and continuous authority over the civir service. Now all experience shows„it to be. an essential ' condition that the permanent officials should be dependent; on and genuinely subordinate to the representative boHy. This condition is fulfilled in the constitutions such as those of the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton-spinners and the Miners' Federation, where the representative assembly^ itself appoints the officers, determines their duties, and fixesv, their salaries. But 'it is entirely absent in ^1 Trade Union constitutions based on a representative ex p^"tivp- Under thiy arrangement the executive committee neither appoints the] officers nor fixes their salaries. Though the representative^ executive, unlike the old governing branch, can in its corporate capacity claim to speak in the name of all the' members, so can the general secretary himself, and often each assistant secretary." All alike hold their positions from the same supreme power—the votes of the members ; and have their ( respective duties and emoluments defined by the same- written constitution—the society's rules.
This absence of any co-ordination of the several parts of the constitution works out, in practice, in one of two ways. There may arise jealousies between the several officers;^ or between them and some of the members o'f the executive committee. J We have known instances in which an incom- petent and arbitrary general secretary has been pulled up by one or other of his colleagues who wanted to succeed to
52 Trade Union Structure
his place. The suspicion engendered by the relation of competitors for popular suffrage checks, it may be, some positive malpractices, but results also in the obstruction of useful measures of policy, or even in their failure through dis- loyalty. ( More usually the^ executive conimittee^feelingjtself powerless to control the officials, te nds to ma ke a tacit and half-unconscious compact with themj_ based on mutual support against the criticism of their common constituenjsj If the members of the committee are themselves salted officials, they not only have a fellow-feeling for the'weak- nesses of their brother officials, but they also realise~viv^ly the personal risk of appealing against them to the popular vote. If, on the other hand, the Piembers-xontinue to work at their trade, they feel themselves at a hopeless disadvaatage in any such appeal. They have neither the business ex- perience nor the acquaintance with details~necessary for a successful indictment of an officer who is known from one end of the society to the otherj^nd who enjoys the aarontage^ of controlling its machinery. 'Thus we have in many unions governed by a Representative Executive the formation of a ruling clique, half officials, half representativ e^. \ fjThis i has all the disadvantages of such a bureaucracy as we have^ described in the case of the United Society of Boilermakers, without the efficiency made possible by its hierarchical organisation and the predominant authority of the head of the staffjjraPo sum up, if there are among the salaried repre- sentatives or officials restless spirits, " conscientious critids," or disloyal comrades, the general body of members may rest assured that they will be kept informed of what is going on, but at the cost of seeing their machinery of government constantly clogged by angry recriminations and appeals. If, on the other hand, the men who meet at headquarters in one or another capacity are " good fellows," the machine will work smoothly with such efficiency as their industry and capacity happens to be equal to, but all popular control over this governing clique will disappear^" } , \We see, then, that though government by a representa-1
Representative Institutions 53
Live exegutlye Js a real advance on the old expedients, it is IHielj^tq grove Jnferior to government by a representative, assembly, appointing its own cabinet and officers. But a great national Trade Union extending from one end of the kingdom to the other cannot easily adopt the superior form, even if the members desire it. ) The Cotton Operatives enjoy the special advantage of having practically all their member- ship within a radius of thirty miles from Manchester. The frequent gatherings of a hundred delegates held usually on a Saturday afternoon entail, therefore, no loss of working time and little expense to the organisation. The same con- sideration applies to the great bulk of the membership of the Miners' Federation, three-fourths of which is concentrated in Lancashire, West Yorkshire, and the industrial Midlands. Even the outlying coalfields elsewhere enjoy the advantage of close local concentration, so that a single delegate may effectively represent the hundreds of lodges in his own county. And it is no small consideration that the total membership of the Miners' Federation is so large that the cost of frequent meetings of fifty to seventy delegates bears only a trifling proportion to the resources of the union. Very different is the position of the great unions in the engineering and building trades. The 46,000 members of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters in the United Kingdom, for instance, are divided into 623 branches, scattered over 400 separate towns or villages. Each town has its own Working Rules, its own Standard Rate and Normal Day, and lacks intimate connection with the towns right and left of it. The representative chosen by the Newcastle , branch might easily be too much absorbed by the burning local question of demarcation against the Shipwrights to pay much attention to the simple grievances of the Hexham branch as to the Saturday half-holiday, or to the multiplication of apprentices in the joinery shops at Darlington. Similar considerations apply to the 497 branches of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, whose 80,000 members in the United Kingdom are
