Sidney Webb, Martha Beatrice Webb
Industrial Democracy
Published by Good Press, 2020
EAN 4064066418427
Table of Contents
CHAPTER II REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS
CHAPTER III THE UNIT OF GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER IV INTERUNION RELATIONS
CHAPTER I THE METHOD OF MUTUAL INSURANCE
CHAPTER II THE METHOD OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
CHAPTER IV THE METHOD OF LEGAL ENACTMENT
CHAPTER VII SANITATION AND SAFETY
CHAPTER VIII NEW PROCESSES AND MACHINERY
CHAPTER IX CONTINUITY OF EMPLOYMENT
CHAPTER X THE ENTRANCE TO A TRADE
CHAPTER XI THE RIGHT TO A TRADE
CHAPTER XII THE IMPLICATIONS OF TRADE UNIONISM
CHAPTER XIII THE ASSUMPTIONS OF TRADE UNIONISM
CHAPTER I THE VERDICT OF THE ECONOMISTS
CHAPTER II THE HIGGLING OF THE MARKET
CHAPTER III THE ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADE UNIONISM
(a) The Device of Restriction of Numbers
(b) The Device of the Common Rule
(c) The effect of the sectional application of the Common Rule on the distribution of industry
(g) Summary of the Economic Characteristics of the Device of the Common Rule
CHAPTER IV TRADE UNIONISM AND DEMOCRACY
CHAPTER I PRIMITIVE DEMOCRACY
In the local trade clubs of the eighteenth century,, democracy appeared in its simplest form. Like the citizens^ of Uri or Appenzell * the workmen were slow to recognise any other authority than " the voices " of all concerned! The members of each trade, in general meeting assembled] themselves made the regulations, applied them to particular cases, voted the expenditure of funds, and decided on such action by individual members as seemed necessary for the common weal. The early rules were accordingly occupied with securing the maintenance of order and decorum at these general meetings of " the trade " or "the body." With this view the president, often chosen only for the particular meeting, was treated with great respect and invested with special, though temporary,
• Copyright in the United States of America, 1896, by Sidney and Beatrice Webb.
The eariy Trade Union general meetings have, indeed, many interesting
resemblances, both in spirit and in form, to the "Landesgemeinden," or general meetings of all citizens, of the old Swiss Cantons. The best description of these archaic Swiss democracies, as they exist to-day, is given by Eugene Rambert in his work Les Alpes Suisses : Etudes Jlistoriqties et Nationales (Lausanne, 1889). J. M. Vincent's State and Federal Government in Switzerland (Baltimore, 189 1) is more precise and accurate than any other account in the English language. Freeman's picturesque reference to them in The Growth of the English Constitu- tion (London, 1872) is well known.
4 Trade Union Structure
authority. Thus the constitution of the London Society of Woolstaplers, established 1785, declares "that at every meeting of this society a president shall be chosen to preserve the rules of decorum and good order ; and if any member should not be silent on due notice given by the president, which shall be by giving three distinct knocks on the table, he shall fine threepence ; and if any one shall in- terrupt another in any debate while addressing the president, he shall fine sixpence ; and if the person so fined shall return any indecent language, he shall fine sixpence more ; and should any president misconduct himself, so as to cause uproar and confusion in the society, or shall neglect to enforce a strict observance of this and the following article, he shall be superseded, and another president shall be chosen in his stead. -The president shall be accommodated with his own choice of liquors, wine only excepted." ^ And the Articles of the Society of Journeymen Brushmakers, to which no person was to be admitted as a member " who is not well-affected to his present Majesty and the Protestant succession, and in good health, and of a respectable char- acter," provide " that on each evening the society meets there shall be a president chosen from the members present to keep order ; to be allowed a shilling for his trouble ; any member refusing to serve the