Unit of Government 89
temained in all cases nothing but the agents an d servant s of the local societies / And if we turn to a movement still more closely analoggus to Trade Unionism, we may watch in the marvellous expansion of the " Affiliated Orders," among the friendly societies, the growth of a world-wide working^lass organisatibn, based on an almost complete autonomy of the separate " lodges " within each " Order." ^ To the members of an Oddfellows' Court or a Foresters' Lodge any proposal to submit an issue of policy to the federal executive would seem an unheard-of innovation. But it is in their financial system that this insistence on com- plete local autonomy shows itself most decisively. How- ever strongly the qualities of benevolence or charity may prevail among the Foresters or the Oddfellows, it has never occurred to their rich Courts or Lodges to regard their surplus funds as being freely at the disposal of those which were unable to meet their engagements. Each retains and controls its own funds for its own purposes, and its surplus balances are considered as being as much the private property of its own particular members as their individual investments.
To outward seeming the scattered members of a national Trade Union enjoy no less local self-government than those of the Ancient Order of Foresters or the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows. If the reader were to seek out, in som?" tavern of an industrial centre, the local meeting-place of thev Foresters or ,the Carpenters, the Oddfellows or the Boiler- makers, he might easily fail, on a first visit, to detect any important difference between the Trade Union branch and the court or lodge of the friendly society. The Oddfellows^ who use the club-room on a Monday, the Carpenters who meet there on a Tuesday, the Foresters who assemble on a Thursday, and the Stonemasons or Boilermakers who come
- 1 The Co-operative Movement in Great Britain, by Beatrice Potter (Mrs. Sidney Webb).
2 See The Friendly Societies' Movement (London, 1885) and Mutual Thrift (London, 1892), by the Rev. J. Frome Wilkinson, and English Associations oj Working Men, by Dr. J. Baernreither (London, 1892).
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on successive Fridays, all seem " clubs " managing their own affairs. Every night sees the same interminable proces- sion of men, women, and children bringing the contribution money. When the deliberations begin, they all affect the same traditional mystery about " keeping the do(|)r," and retain the long pause outside before admitting the nervous aspirant for " initiation " ; they all " open the lodge " with the same kind of cautious solemnity, and dignify with strange titles and formal methods of address the officers whom they are perpetually electing and re-electing. But if the visitor listens carefully he will notice, in the Trade Union business, constant references to mysterious outside authorities.' The whole branch may show itself in favor of the grant of benefit to a particular applicant, but the secretary will observe that any such payment would have to come out of his own pocket, as the central executive has intimated that the case is not within its interpretation of the rules. The branch treasurer may announce that the balance in hand has suddenly sunk to a few pounds, as he has been ordered by the central office to remit ;^ioo to a branch at the other end of the kingdom. And when a question arises as to some dispute with an employer, the visitor will be surprised to find that this characteristic Trade Union business is not in the hands of the branch at all, but is being dealt with by another outside authority, the " district," on instruc- tions from the general secretary. ^
y . Trade Unionism has, in fact, been based, from the outset' T jn the principle of the solidarity of the trade . Even the eighteenth-century clubs of handicraftsmen, without nation^ organisation of any kind, habitually contributed their surplus
1 Branch meetings of Trade Unions are private, but it is not impossible for a bona-fide student of Trade Unionism to gain admission as the friend of one of the officials. The authors have attended branch meetings of almost every trade in various industrial centres, and have found their proceedings of great interest, not only as revealing the inner working of Trade Unionism, but also as displaying the marked differences of physique, intellect, and character between the different sections of the wage-earning class, often erroneously regarded as homogeneousl Some of these differences are referred to in the- chapter on " The Assumptions of Trade Unionism."
The Unit of Government 91
balances in support of each other's temporary needs. When the clubs drew together in a national union, it was assumed, as a matter of course, that any cash in pos- session of any branch was available for the needs of any •other branch. Thus we learn from the resolution of th^ Stonemasons' Delegate Meeting of 1833, that the several lodges were expected spontaneously to send their surplus monies to the aid of any district engaged in a strike.^ This archaic trustfulness in the brotherhood of man still contents such a conservative- minded trade as the Coopers, whose " Mutual Association " remains only a loose alliance of local clubs, aiding each other's disputes by voluntary grants." But in the large industries the same spirit soon embodied itself in formal machinery. Among the Stonemasons the primi- tive arrangement was, it is not surprising to learn, in the opinion of the "Grand Central Committee," wholly in- efficient," each district sending only such funds as it chose, and selecting which out of several districts on strike it would support. The next step, which appears in the first manu- script rules (probably of 1834), was to make each branch " immediately contribute a proportionate share " of the cost of maintaining each strike, fixed by the Grand Committee. Finally, in 1837, we have what has become the typical Trade Union arrangement of a fund belonging, not to the branch, but to the society ; available only for the purposes prescribed by the rules, but within those purposes common to the whole organisation.
It is easy to unders:and why the Stonemasons, dispersed over the country in rwlatively small groups, each conscious of its own isolation and weakness in face of the great capitalist contractor, should quickly seize the idea of a common " war-chest." The Carpenters, working under much ,
Circular of " Grand Central Committee," held in Manchester, 28th
November 1833, preserved in the records of the Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons.
2 See the various " monthly reports " of the Mutual Association of Coopers. A proposal is under discussion to form a central fund, fed by regular contributions for the aid of any branch un^er attack.
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the same circumstances, express this feeling in the following terms : " Although oceans may separate us from each other, our interests are identical ; and if we become united under one constitution, governed by one code of rules, having one common fund available wherever it may be required, we thus acquire a power which, if judiciously exercised, will protect our interests more effectually and will confer greater advan- tages than can possibly be derived from any partial union." ^ But we may see the same process of financial centralisation at work in trades densely concentrated in a small area.j The Cotton-spinners of Oldham and the surrounding towns were, down to 1879, organised as a federation of ten financially autonomous societies, each collecting, expending, and investing its own funds. The great trade struggle of 1877–78 revealed the weakness of this form of organisation. To quote the words of an official of the trade,*^ "The result was that when a strike occurred, some of the branches were on the point of bankruptcy, whilst others were in a good position as regards funds for maintaining the struggle. They soon found out their real fighting strength was gauged, not by the worth of their richest branch, but by the poorest. It was another exemplification of the old law of mechanics that the strength of the chain is represented by its weakest link. After the struggle they remedied the defect by enacting that all surplus funds should be deposited in one common account." Since that time each division of the Lancashire Cotton-spinners has adopted the principle of centralised funds]. " We hold," says the General Secretary of the Bolton Spinners, " that where the labour of any number of men is subject to the same fluctuatioiis of trade, when the product of their labour goes into the same market, and when the prices and conditions which regulate their wages are
