Industrial Democracy. Sidney Webb
not yet appeared practicable to any British Trade Union even to suggest amalgamation with the Trade Union of any other country^ Differences in legal position, in political status, in industrial methods, and in the economic situation between
1 Where at the present day a widespread English industry is without a pre- ponderating national Trade Union, it is simply a mark of imperfect organisation. Thus the numerous little Trade Unions of Painters, and Chippers and Drillers include only a small proportion of those at work in the trades.
The Amalgamated Society of Engineers had, in 1896, 82 branches beyond
the United Kingdom, and the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners no fewer than 87. About half of these are in the United States or Canada, and most of the remainder in the Australian Colonies or South Africa. The Engineers had one branch in France, at Croix, and forinerly one in Spain, at Bilbao, where the United Society of Boilermakers also had a branch until 1894. I" the years 1 880–82 the United Society of Boilermakers even had a. branch at Con- stantmople. The only other English Trade Union having branches beyond sea is the Steam-Englne Makers' Society, which has opened lodges at New York, Montreal, and Brisbane.
82 Trade Union Structure
French and English workers—not to mention the barrier of language—easily account for the indisposition on the part of practical British workmen to consider an international amalgamated union. And it is significant that, even within the British Isles, the progress towards national union has been much hampered by differences of racial sentiment and divergent views of social expediency. The English carpenter, plumber, or smith who finds himself working in a Scotch town, is apt to declare the Scotch union in his trade to be little better than a friendly society, and^ to complain that Scotch workmen are too eager for immediate gain and for personal advancement sufficiently to resist such dangerous innovations as competitive piecework, nibbling at the Standard Rate, or habitual overtime. The Scotchman retorts that the English Trade Union is extravagant in its expenditure, especially at the head office in London or Manchester, and unduly restrictive in its Regulations and Methods. In some cases the impulse towards amalgama^ tion has prevailed over this divergence as to what is socially expedient. The United Society of Boilermakers, which extends without a rival from sea .to sea, was able in 1 88^ through the loyalty of the bulk of its Scottish members, to stamp out an attempted secession, aiming at a national society on the banks of the Clyde, which evoked the support of Scottish national feeling, voiced by the Glasgow Trades Council. In other cases Scotch pertinacity has conquered England. The Associated Shipwrights' Society, the rise and national development of which we have already described, sprang out of the Glasgow Shipwrights' Uiiion, which gave to the wider organisation its able and energetic secretary, Mr. Alexander Wilkie. The British Steel Smelters' Associa- tion (established 1886) haT spread from Glasgow over the whole industry in the Northern and Midland districts of England. In both these cases the Scotch, have " stooped to conquer," the Scottish secretary moving to an English town as the centre of membership shifted towards the south. But in other trades the prevailing tendency towards complete
The Unit of Government 83
national amalgamation is still baffled by the sturdy Scotch determination—due partly to differences of administration but mainly to racial sentiment—not to be " governed from | England."^ The powerful English national unions of Car- penters, Handworking Bootmakers, Plumbers, and Bricklayers have either never attempted or have failed to persuade their Scottish fellowrworkmen to give up their separate Scottish societies. The-xival national societies of Tailors are always at war, making periodical excursions across the Border, this establishment of branches in each other's territories giving rise to heated recriminations. In many important trades, such as the Compositors, Stonemasons, and Ironfounders, effective Trade Unionism is as old in Scotland as in England, and the two national societies in each trade, whilst retaining complete Home Rule, have settled down to a fraternal relationship, which amounts to tacit if not formal federation.
Ireland, presents a similar case of racial differences, working in a somewhat different manner. Whereas the English Trade Unions have keenly desired union with Scottish local societies, they have, until lately, manifested a m arked dislike to having anything to do with Ireland.'^ This has been, in some cases at least, the result of experience,
' Analogous tendencies may be traced in the Friendly Society movement, though to a lesser extent. The Scottish lodges of the Manchester Unity of Odd- fellows have their own peculiar rules. The Scottish delegates to the Foresters' High Court at Edinburgh in 1894, were among the most strenuous opponents of the proposal to fix the headquarters (at present moving annually from town to town) in London or Birmingham. And though exclusively Scottish Orders have never yet succeeded in widely establishing themselves, it is not uncommon for Scottish lodges to threaten secession, as when, in 1889, five Scottish lodges of the Bolton Unity of the Ancient Noble Order of Oddfellows endeavoured to start a new "Scottish Unity" (Oddfellows' Magazine, March 1889, p. 70). Such a secession from the Manchester Unity resulted in the "Scottish Order of Odd- fellows" which has, however, under 2000 members. There exist also the "St. Andrew's Order of Ancient Free Gardeners of Scotland," with 6000 members, and a " United Order of Scottish Mechanics," with 4000 members, which refuse to merge themselves in the larger Orders.
2 Scottish branches are declared by Trade Union secretaries to be profitable recruits from a financial point of view, because they are habitually frugal and cautious in dispensing friendly benefits.
84 Trade Union Structure
From 1832 down to 1840, Irish lodges were admitted to the Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons, on the same footing as English, whilst the Scotch masons had already their independent organisation. The fortnightly reports during these years reveal constant friction between the central executive and the Irish branches, who would not agree among themselves, and who persisted in striking against members from other Irish towns. At the Delegate Meeting in 1839 the Irish branches had to be specially deprived of the right to strike without prior permission, even in those cases in which the rules allowed to English branches the instantaneous cessation of work to resist encroachments on established customs.^ But even with this precaution the drain of the Irish lodges upon the English members became unendurable. At length in 1 840, the general
"secretary was sent on a special- mission of investigation, which revealed every kind of financial irregularity. The Irish lo dges \y ere found to have a n in curable p rgpensjt^o d ispense benefits toall and sund r y irr e spective of th e_nUes,
>aSd^^inyincibIe _objection to Enfrlish methods nf arrnrmf- keeping . The Dublin lodge had to be dissolved as a punisljment for retaining to itself monies remitted by the Central Committee for other Irish lodges. The central executive who, in 1837, had successfully resisted a proposi- tion emanating from a Warwickshire district in favor of Home Rule for Ireland, " as such separation would injure the stability of the society," " now reported in its favor. " We are convinced," says the report, " that a very great amount of money had been sent to Ireland for the reli ef of tra mps, etc … to which they had no legal fight. … However much a separation may be regretted, we feel convinced that until they are thrown more on their own resources, they will not sufficiently estimate the benefits derivable from such an institution to exert themselves on its behalf." * The receipts
1 Rules of the Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons (edition of 1839).
2 Resolutions of the Delegate Meeting 1837.
S Stonemason^ Fortnightly Return, 2nd January 1840.
The Unit of Government 85
from Ireland for the year had been £i,y : los., whilst the remittances to Ireland had amounted to no less than ;^545. It is not surprising that the society promptly voted the exclusion of all the Irish branches.
In 1850 the Executive Committee of the Provincial Typographical Association were " reluctantly compelled to declare their conviction that no English executive can successfully "manage an Association embracing branches so geographically distant and so materially different in their regulations and their mode of remuneration as those of the sister kingdom." The union thereupon gave up the one Irish branch (Waterford) which had not already insisted on its independence, and