1 See the enthusiastic description of this organisation in Zum Socialen Frieden (Leipzig, 1890), 2 vols., by Dr. G. von Schulze-Gaevemite, translated as Socio! Peace (London, 1893), pp. 239–243.
30 Trade Union Structure
benefit, can be altered by aggregate vote ; and even if a delegate meeting assembles, its amendments have to be submitted to the votes of the branches in mass meeting. Any branch, moreover, may insist that any proposition whatsoever shall be submitted to this same aggregate vote. The society, in short, still retains the form of a Trade Union democracy of the crudest type.
But although the executive committee, the branch meeting and the Referendum occupy the main body of the society's rules, the whole policy has long been directed and the whole administration conducted exclusively by an infor- mal cabinet of permanent officials which is unknown to the printed constitution. Twenty years ago the society had the good fortune to elect as general secretary, Mr. Robert Knight, a man of remarkable ability and strength of character, who has remained the permanent premier of this little kingdom. During his long reign, there has grown up around him a staff of younger officials, who, though severally elected on their individual merits, have been in no way able to compete with their chief for the members' allegiance. These district dele- gates are nominally elected only for a term of two years, just as the general secretary himself is elected only for a term of five years. But, for the reasons we have given elsewhere, all these officials enjoy a permanence of tenure practically equal to that of a judge. Mr. Knight's unquestioned superiority in Trade Union statesmanship, together with the invariable support of the executive committee, have enabled him to construct, out of the nominally independent district delegates, a virtual cabinet, alternately serving as councillors on high issues of policy and as ministers carrying out in their own spheres that which they have in council decided. From the written constitution of the society, we should suppose that it was from the evening meetings of the little Newcastle committee of working platers and rivetters that emanated all those national treaties and elaborate collective bargains with the associated employers that have excited the admiration of economic students. • But its unrepresentative character, the
Primitive Democracy 31
short term of service of its members and the practical rota- tion of office make it impossible for the constantly shifting executive committee to exercise any effective influence over even the ordinary routine business of so large a society. The complicated negotiations involved in national agreements are absolutely beyond its grasp. What actually happens is that, in any high issue of policy, Mr. Knight summons his district delegates to meet him in council at London or Manchester, to concert, and even to conduct, with him the weighty negotiations which the Newcastle executive formally endorses. And although the actual administration of the benefits is conducted by the branch committees, the absolute centralisa- tion of funds and the supreme disciplinary power vested in the executive committee make that committee, or rather the general secretary, as dominant in matters of finance as in trade policy. The only real opportunity for an effective' expression of the popular will comes to be the submission oT" questions to the aggregate vote of the branches in mass meeting assembled. It is needless to point out that a ' Referendum of this kind, submitted through the official circular in whatsoever terms the general secretary may choose, and backed by the influence of the permanent staff in every district, comes to be only a way of impressing the official view on the whole body of members. In effect^ the general secretary and his informal cabinet were, until the change of 1895, abs^ut elv supreme .^ ._
In the case of the Boilermakers, government by an informal cabinet of salaried officials has, up to the present time, been highly successful. It is, however, obvious that a less competent statesman than Mr. Knight would find great difficulty in welding into a united cabinet a body of district
1 In 1895, after this chapter was written, the constitution was changed, owing to the growing feeling of the members in London and some other towns, that their bureaucracy was, under the old forms, completely beyond their control. By the new rules the government is vested in a representative executive of seven salaried members, elected by the seven electoral districts into which the whole society is divided, for a term of three years, one-third retiring annually. — Rules of tht United Society of Boilermakers, etc. (Newcastle, 1895). It is as yet too soon to comment on the effect of this change, which only came into operation in 1897.
32 Trade Union Structure
officers separately responsible to the whole society, and nominally subject only to their several district committees. Under these circumstances any personal friction or disloyalty : might easily paralyse the whole trade policy, upon which the prosperity of the society depends. Moreover, though under Mr. Knight's upright and able government the lack of any supervising authority has not been felt, it cannot but be regarded as a defect that the constitution provides no prac- tical control over a corrupt, negligent, or incompetent general secretary. The only persons in the position to criticise effectually the administration of the society are the salaried officials themselves, who would naturally be indisposed to risk their offices by appealing, against their official superior, to the uncertain arbitrament of an aggregate vote. Finally, this constitution, with all its parade of democratic form, secures in reality to the ordinary plater or rivetter little if 'any active participation in the central administration of his Trade Union ; no real opportunity is given to him for expressing his opinion ; and no call is made upon his intelligence for the formation of any opinion whatsoever. In short, the Boilermakers, so long as they remaine3\ content with this form of government, secured efficient administration at the expense of losing all the educative influences and political safeguards of democracy. ^_^ _
" Among the well-organised Coalminers of the North of
England the theory of " direct legislation by the people " is still in full force. Thus, the 19,000 members of the Northumberland Miners' Mutual Confident Association (estab- lished 1863) decide every question of policy, and even many merely administrative details, by the votes taken in the several lodge meetings ; ^ and although a delegate meeting is held every quarter, and by a rule of 1894 is expressly declared to " meet for the purpose of deliberating free and untrammelled upon the whole of the programme," its function is strictly limited to expressing its opinion, the entire list of propositions
1 See, for instance, the twenty-five separate propositions voted on in a single batch, 9th June 1894. — Northumberland Miners^ Minutes, 1894, pp, 23–26.
Primitive Democracy 2)2>
being then " returned to the lodges to be voted on." ' The executive committee is elected by the whole body; and the members, who retire after only six months' service, are ineligible for re-election. Finally, we have the fact that the salaried officials are themselves elected by the members at large. To this lack of organic connection between the different parts of the constitution, the student will perhaps attribute a certain inst ability of polic y manifested in successive popular votes. In June 1894, a vote of all the members was taken on the question of joining the Miners' Federation, and an affirmative result was reached by 6730 to 5807. But in the very next month, when the lodges were asked whether they were pre- pared to give effect to the well-known policy of the Federa- tion and claim the return of reductions in wages amounting to sixteen per cent, which they had accepted since 1892, they voted in the negative by more than two to one ; and backed this up by an equally decisive refusal to contribute towards the resistance of other districts. " They had joined a Federation knowing its principles and its policy, and im- mediately after joining they rejected the principles they had just embraced," was the comment of one of the members
1 Rule 15. We see here a curious instance of the express separation of the deliberative from the legislative function, arising out of the inconvenient results of the use of the Imperative Mandate. The committee charged with the revision of the rules in 1893- 1 894 reported that "the present