Industrial Democracy. Sidney Webb

efficient form of Trade Union organisation is therefore one in which the several secfiortS can be united ibr the purposes that they have m common, to the exte nt to which identity of interest prevails, and no further, whilst at the same time each section preserves

      140 Trade. Union Structure

      complete auto nomy wherever its interests or purposes diverg e j rom those of its allies^ \ But this is only another form'of the difficult political problem of the relation of supreme to subordinate authorities. Whilst the student of political democracy has been grappling with the question of how to distribute administration between central and local author- ities, the unlettered statesmen of the Trade Union world nave had to decide the still more difficult issue of ^w to distribute power between general and sectio nal industrial combinations, both of national extent./ |Tne solution has been found in a series of widening an3cross-cutting federa- tions, each of which combines, to the extent only of its own particular objects, those organisations which are conscious ^ their identity of purpose. Instead of a simple form of democratic organisation we get, therefore, one of extreme complexity. Where the difficulties of the problem have feen rightly apprehended, and the whole industry has been organised on what may be called a single plane, the result may be, as in the case of the Cotton Operatives, a complex but harmoniously working democratic machine of remarkable efficiency and stability. Where, on the other hand, the industry has been organised on incompatible bases, as among the Engineers, we find a complicated tangle of relationships producing rivalry and antagonism, in which effective common action, even for such purposes as are common to all sections, becomes almost impossibjgj

      ") Tfade Union organisation, if it is to reach its highest possible efficiency, must therefore assume a federal form.^ Instead of a supreme central government, delegating parts of its power to subordinate local authorities, we may expect to see the Trade Union world developing into an elaborate series of federations, among which it will be difficult to decide where 1 the sovereignty really resides. Where the several sections closely resemble each other in their cirO cumstances and needs, where their common purposes are! relatively numerous and important, and where, as a result/ individual secession and subsequent isolation would be)

      Interunion Relations 14^

      dangerous, the federal tie will be strong, and the federal" government will, in_ effect, become the supreme authority. At the other end of the scale will stand those federations, little more than opportunities for consultation, in which the contracting parties retain each a real autonomy, and use the federal executive as a convenient, but strictly subordinate machinery for securing those limited purposes that they have in common. And we have ventured to suggest, as an interesting corollary, that the basis of re- presentation s hould, in all these c o nstitutions, vary according to the charact er of the bond of union, r epresent ation propo rtionate to membership being;' perfe ^tV spplirnhln nrrl^' to a homogeneous organisati on, and decreasing in sui tability with every degree 01 dissimilarity hetvfreen the- cnnatk-aefKfe- bodies;^ Where the sectional interests are not only distinct, but may, in certain cases, be even antagonistic, as, for instance, in industries subject to demarcation disputes, rule by majority vote must be frankly abandoned, and the repre- sentatives of societies widely differing in numerical strength must, under penalty of common failure, consent to meet on equal terms, to discover, by consultation, how best to conciliate the interests of all.